Roasted Corn & Black Bean Salsa

10-24-14

Roasted Corn & Black Bean Salsa

This gorgeous box arrived from Backyard Produce and I needed a side for a party on Saturday. This salsa instantly came to mind! It is always a huge hit and easy to make!

1 large red onion, diced
1 large bell pepper, diced
2 ears corn, roasted, then kernels removed from cob
2 large tomatoes, diced
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can rotel, drained 
for those that like some spice, add in diced jalapeno pepper

for dressing:
2 cloves garlic, mashed
1 tablespoon red cider vinegar
2 tablespoon olive oil
juice of half fresh lime 
your choice, chopped cilantro or chopped parsley or neither!

(If you don't want to make dressing, use a few tablespoons of robust Italian salad dressing)!

I use an indoor grill, with little olive oil, salt and pepper

Mix all veggies in bowl, add black beans and can of rotel 

In small mixing cup or bowl make dressing and whisk together. Drizzle over veggies and toss until all are covered. If too much liquid in bowl, just drain some off, as veggies sit, creates more "juice"!

Serve with your choice of tortilla chips.

Hint: leftovers are great mixed into scrambled eggs for an instant huevos rancheros! Eat plain or wrapped in a tortilla! 

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Loaded egg scramble

10-23-14

Loaded egg scramble, this is a family favorite!

8 eggs, I use 1-2 per person (adjust as needed)
link or roll sausage, for this batch I used links
bacon*
1 large potato, diced
onion, diced (I have also used green onion)
green pepper, diced
mushrooms, sliced
bok choi, sliced (just happened to have it so threw it in)
feel free to add or omit any veggie to fit your taste
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter or margarine (if desire for eggs)
2 tablespoons of cold milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup shredded cheese, any flavor you like

*My bacon tip:
I cut packages of bacon into thirds and freeze them. When I need them for cooking, they cook quickly and easily in small fry pan and don't need to worry about long strips, the whole third fits in pan at once! When done, drain and pat dry then add to recipe. If prefer to crumble, put in paper towel and crumble away! One third is equal to about 6-8 slices.

Bok choi, Backyard Produce rocks!

In large skillet, heat olive oil on medium and add in potato. Cook about ten minutes, stirring often until potato starts to brown. Add onions, peppers and any other veggies and cook until tender (depending on veggies 5-7 minutes).

In smaller skillet, cook sausage, if roll, scramble it. If links, cook then slice to desired size, I usually halve or third them.
Drain and pat dry and add to veggie mix.

After cook sausage, drain grease and use same pan for the bacon. Once bacon is desired level of crispy, drain and pat dry. Add to veggie mix.

Break eggs into large bowl and whisk with cold milk. Add salt and pepper to taste. Depending on your preference, can scramble eggs in bacon grease or use a fresh pan with butter or margarine. Once eggs are scrambled to your liking add them to veggies/meat mix and stir well. Top with shredded cheese and stir to melt. I have found that colby jack mix or sharp cheddar are good ones! 

Serves 4 at my house!

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Pork Chops smothered with onions, peppers, and squash.

10-22-14

Smothered Pork Chops

4 pork chops (I used boneless)
1 bell pepper, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1 zucchini, sliced
1 summer squash, sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced 
salt and pepper to taste

Mix worcestershire sauce, teriyaki sauce and salt and pepper in shallow baking dish. Thoroughly coat pork chops. Cover and leave in fridge about thirty minutes to marinate.

Place baking dish in 375 degree oven for about twenty minutes, depending on thickness of chops may need to adjust baking time. For thicker chops add time, for thinner chops reduce time. I usually check temp with thermometer in center of chop. 140 to 150 degrees is perfect for us.

In large skillet, heat olive oil and garlic over medium heat for minute or two then add in onion and bell pepper. Cook for several minutes until onion turns clear. Add in zucchini and squash and cook another five minutes or so until start to soften. Reduce to low until ready to serve. I like to take some of the pork chop pan gravy and add to veggies. Stir and serve on top of chops. 

Depending on size of chops, serves 2-4.

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Roast Beef & Potatoes, Quinoa w/avocado & pomegranate, and Soy Sesame Green Beans, the next day- Salad!

10-22-14

Another gorgeous box from Backyard Produce and Joe was working all weekend so spent Sunday researching recipes for pomegranate. Liked the slaw but wanted to do something different with this one. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I had an entire meal planned out. Made this Monday and sent half home for my daughter's family, they gave it two thumbs up!

Menu is:
Roast beef with garlic
Roasted red and Yukon potatoes with sage
Quinoa with avocado and pomegranate seeds
Green beans with garlic, sesame and soy sauce

I'll set this up so that each recipe may be printed out alone!

Roast beef and potatoes

2-3 pound roast
1 pound red potatoes
1 pound Yukon gold potatoes
6 cloves of garlic
2 cups beef stock
big handful of fresh sage
Kosher salt
coarse ground black pepper

Peel garlic. Cut slits into top of roast (to make pockets) and insert whole piece of garlic in. Rub all sides of roast with salt and pepper.

Scrub potatoes and cut into quarters. Put in bottom of roasting pan. Chop up sage leaves and sprinkle over top of potatoes along with salt and pepper. 

Put rack in and place roast on the rack. Pour beef stock over roast and potatoes.

Bake at 350 degrees, for medium rare, about 20 minutes per pound. 

After cooking, take out of oven and wait about ten minutes before slicing roast. Remember to slice against grain of the meat! I like to slice on a plate so can add juices back to pan for gravy. 

Put potatoes in a bowl and gravy in a separate container to keep potatoes crisp!

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Quinoa with avocado and pomegranate seeds 

I found many recipes that were similar using all types of grains. I had a box of quinoa with roasted red peppers so chose it as my grain. 

1 box grain cooked according to package directions
2 avocados, diced
1 pomegranate cleaned, use seeds only
1 lemon, for juice only (or couple teaspoons of lemon juice)
drizzle of olive oil
salt and pepper 

Cook grain ahead of time so can cool off. 

Best directions I found to clean pomegranate

Add avocado and pomegranate seeds to grain.

Drizzle with lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. (lemon juice keeps avocado from turning brown)

Serve as is.

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Green beans with garlic, sesame and soy sauce

Tip, straight from all the food channels I watch for the green beans. 

Wash all of the green beans and trim the ends. I like to cut them into inch size pieces, but that is personal preference. The trick is to keep them bright green. Boil a pot of salted water, throw the green beans in, cook for about three minutes, then put them into a bowl of ice and water. I scoop them out with a slotted spoon to avoid splashing boiling water in sink.

Ice water stops them from cooking too much, they'll soften the rest of the way in the recipe! I did these on Sunday so they'd be ready for Monday and stored them in an airtight container in the fridge. Be sure to drain out all of the water before you put them in fridge!

2 pounds green beans

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

salt and pepper

In fairly good size skillet, heat canola oil on medium heat, add in butter and then garlic. Stir and let start to brown, just a few minutes. Add in soy sauce and sesame seeds, mix well and add in green beans. Let green beans heat through. Be sure to stir enough to coat all of the green beans with the sauce. Add pepper and salt to taste. Remember that soy sauce is already salty and beans were cooked in salt water so taste before adding more salt! The longer you cook the softer the green beans will become. We prefer them a bit crunch so only heat through and then serve.

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Next Day Salad 

1 bunch whatever lettuce you have

1 tomato, diced

1 green pepper, diced

1 yellow onion, diced (or part of one, those last ones were huge)

radishes, diced

leftover roast, diced

leftover green beans

leftover quinoa

Thoroughly wash and drain lettuce. Be sure to separate leaves and get out all of the grit!

Rough chop lettuce and add in all vegges except tomatoes, and the leftovers. I prefer to put tomato in a separate bowl and add to each salad as serve.

At table, I have dried cranberries, raisins, walnuts, and croutons as well as choices of dressing. We tend to prefer either robust Italian or a berry vinaigrette. The great thing about salad is you can pretty much add any veggie or fruit you like, great way to use the leftovers and tastes completely different! 

Now you can print the recipes (I hope)

10-16-14

If I did this right, every recipe posted now has a Print Recipe button at the bottom of the page. This should take you to the printable version. Whether it does or not depends on whether I did it right or not. Hopefully, I did. Please, please someone let me know so if it doesn't work I can fix it! I wouldn't be adverse to hearing that it worked either! 

I would like to thank a fellow blogger who posted the remarkably easy directions on how to make the recipes printable. Let's hope that I followed them correctly.

Her site 
Confessions of an Overworked Mom

Jalapeno poppers

10-15-14

Forgot to put the ricotta cheese in the picture, sorry!

Received two bags full of these gorgeous jalapeno peppers from Backyard Produce and figured I needed to do something with the majority of them all at once. Decided to do some research on poppers and was amazed at the variety of recipes that I found. Decided to go with the following cheese sauce combo for the stuffing and they were quite tasty. Warning, even with the ribs and seeds removed, they are not for the faint at heart!

16 medium jalapeno peppers
1/2 bar of cream cheese
1/2 cup of ricotta cheese
1/4 cup of crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 small onion, grated
1 teaspoon dried cilantro (or parsley)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Wash and dry peppers. Cut layer off of pepper to create opening to stuff them. I set them on cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil (shiny side down) and figured out which way they lay flat without rolling and cut accordingly! I scooped out all of the ribs and seeds. I used an ice tea spoon to scoop with, fits in perfectly! Saved pieces that I cut off of to use in chili or salsa!

Note to self: don't rub your eyes when you are working with jalapeno peppers. When you are done making the poppers, wash hands with plenty of soap and water! Hands will tingle for awhile!

In bowl, I mixed all of the cheeses until creamy, then added in grated onion and cilantro. I used a teaspoon to fill peppers and that worked fine. Have to play with filling them, too much or too high and they roll on their sides. 

Baked on center rack for 15 minutes, cheese was nice and bubbly and just turning brown. 

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Sesame Ginger Chicken with zucchini, tomato, green onion and couscous

10-14-14

Chicken:
2 small boneless chicken breasts or 1 large one butterflied
1/2 cup sesame ginger marinade  
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin
coarse ground black pepper
kosher salt

Veggies:
2 zucchini, sliced
1 large tomato, diced
4 green onions, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1 box Parmesan Couscous, cooked according to directions

Cover bottom of small skillet with marinade and add chicken breast. Cook over medium heat. Sprinkle with half of garlic salt, cumin, black pepper and kosher salt and cook for five minutes. Turn over and sprinkle with rest of spices and finish cooking another five minutes. Turn heat off and let rest in pan for at least five minutes before slicing. Save marinade and pan juices.

Cook veggies in a larger skillet. Coat bottom with olive oil and mix around to coat all the veggies. Cook over medium heat for five minutes, stir and "flip" zucchini slices and cook another five minutes or so. 

Place chicken slices on top of veggies. Drizzle remaining marinade from pan over top.

Serve over couscous. 

Serves 2

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