This wonderful southwest bowl contains everything you need for a very
healthy one-dish meal. It makes a great lunch to take to school or
work. Quinoa, brown rice, beans, corn, fresh cilantro, and red bell
pepper with a southwest dressing makes a yummy bowl. I like to add fresh tomatoes and avocado on top, and it's perfect. The longer it marinates
with the dressing, the better it is. Make a batch of this on Sunday and
then eat it for lunches during the week. This is a forgiving recipe
that can be made with changes to fit your pantry or taste.
Quinoa Brown Rice Southwest Bowl
Use organic when available. Serves 4
Ingredients
Bowl
2cupscooked quinoa
1cupcooked brown rice
115 oz can pinto beans, drained & rinsed (or black beans)
115 oz can kidney beans, drained & rinsed
1can corn drained or cooked fresh corn removed from cob
1red bell pepper chopped
optional sliced avocado topping
optional halved cherry tomatoes topping
Dressing
1/4cupchopped fresh cilantro or parsley
1/4cupolive oil or avocado oil
juice of 2 limes
1garlic clove minced
1/4tspchili powder
1/4tspcumin
1/4tsponion powder
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Mix
quinoa, beans, corn, red onion, brown rice, red bell pepper, & cilantro together in a glass or plastic container with a lid
Whisk dressing ingredients in a small bowl
Pour dressing over quinoa and rice mixture
Toss to coat
Cover bowl with the lid and refrigerate until flavors blend, at least 2 hours
Top individual bowls with sliced avocado and halved cherry tomatoes Optional
It will be the first day of spring in a couple of weeks, and then Easter is April 5th this year. Today I’m trying another cute
food presentation that I pinned years ago, Deviled Easter Chick Eggs.
Use your favorite deviled egg recipe or mine below and decorate the
little eggs to look like chicks. It’s not hard to do, and it looks adorable for holiday get-togethers.
Start
with week old eggs, as fresh eggs are hard to shell. To prevent
cracking, remove eggs from refrigeration about 30 minutes prior to
boiling. Place eggs in cold water, bring to boil, turn off burner, and
cover. Let sit for 15 minutes. Let cool, and refrigerate at least two
hours before cutting for best results. Serve using an egg holder, a
saucer, bowl, or a platter To use on a flat platter, with a sharp
knife, slice off a very thin layer from the base of the egg to make it
flat. You have the option to make feet but it’s not necessary. Then cut
1/3 of the egg off the top. I cut straight across but later you can
make ragged edges if desired.
Deviled Easter Chick Eggs
Use organic when available, makes 12 Easter chicks
A cute food art for spring & Easter using deviled eggs decorated to look like little chicks.
Great as an Appetizer or Snack
Ingredients
12hard-boiled eggs peeled
2tbspmayonnaise
1 1/2tbspyellow mustard
Optional make w/o mustard
1dill pickle finely diced
1tsppickle juice
salt and pepper to taste
1carrot cut into rounds
12slices of pickle or black olives
Instructions
Refrigerate hard-boiled eggs for at least two hours or overnight
With a sharp knife, slice off a very thin layer from the base of the egg to make it flat if you're using a platter
Slice top 1/3 of eggs leaving a little yolk with the skin
Use a spoon to remove bottom yolk to a bowl
Mash yolks with a fork
Add mayonnaise, pickle, pickle juice, mustard, salt, and pepper, and mix well
Fill a piping bag or plastic bag with a corner snipped with the egg yolk mixture
Pipe yolk mixture into bottom of egg whites to create chick
Cut small wedge from carrot rounds to make a beak for each chick
Cut pickle or olive slices into small squares to use for eyes
Add 2 olive eyes to each chick
Add egg white top to each chick
Adjust so it looks like chick peeking out of egg
Serve on deviled egg tray as centerpiece or in egg holders or on platter
Optional, add a dab of deviled egg filling as glue to stick them to the platter
Optional, make 3 cuts in carrot round for a foot, 2 per chick
Optional, decorate platter with herbs like parsley or dill
Optional, serve on saucer or bowl with salad greens as first course of meal – you've made a free-range chickEnjoy!
This dish was shared on St. Pete’s Channel 10, Good to Know Segment:
This
15-minute recipe is great for a weeknight meal. My seasonings are simple: salt, pepper,
basil, garlic, and lemon juice. If you like a little spice, try adding a pinch of paprika or
crushed red pepper flakes. Serve with simple side dishes for your fast meal, like a simple green salad with frozen corn.
An
Italian pasta classic,
Linguine with Red Clam Sauce is a fast and filling meal. Delicious clams in a savory tomato sauce
make an easy meal that is on the table in 30 minutes. I’m using canned
clams, which can be a staple pantry item, for a quick meal.
The Recipe Critic has a recipe for The Easiest Vegetable Stir Fry. Like always, modify as necessary. What makes this an amazing recipe? The great sauce you make.
Mac
and cheese is another fantastically simple delicious meal that the
whole family can enjoy. It takes no time at all to prepare and it is one
of those meals that can be prepared in the morning and then reheated in
the evening. Take a look at an easy mac and cheese recipe at Sweet C’s Design if
you are unsure how to make it. If you are wanting a low-fat healthier
alternative then you can even accomplish this also. Switch out the pasta
for whole wheat pasta and the cheese and milk for low fat versions. You
will get the same end result and then pair it with some veggies for a
filling meal.
If you’re looking for a healthy meal that’s fast and easy to prepare,
then you might want to try broccoli pasta shells. Broccoli is a great
addition to your diet and will certainly offer fantastic health
benefits. There are several recipes online, but I like the one by RecipeTinEats.
The recipe uses olive oil which I love to use and a little lemon juice,
one of my favorite flavors. One of the best emergency quick dinner
ideas with broccoli, pasta and not much else; it’s a little bit lemony, a
little bit cheesy and a whole lot of yum.
If you’re a fan of your noodles in a packet that you can throw in the microwave, then it’s time for the real thing. I promise you, the ones
that you prepare yourself taste even better, and they won’t take up that
much of your time at all. One point to consider with noodles is what
you’re going to put with them. Similar to stir fry, you have countless
options that are worth considering here. For instance, you can create
some chicken noodles
in about twenty minutes. Or, if you want a great vegetarian dish, just
add some peppers and herbs for a delicious meal that you can easily get
ready when you come in from work. Insanely Good has 27 Easy Noodle Recipes to consider.
If you are looking for a healthy meal choice, then you can try mixing
some ingredients with egg fried rice. This can be as healthy as most
meals in this list, if you avoid MSG and packets of ingredients with
lots sodium or chemicals. The main consideration will be choosing and
preparing the right protein. Fish can be a great choice here as well as
chicken. They pair quite well together. Gimme Some Oven has a great basic recipe that takes 5 minute preparation and 10 minutes to cook it. Check it out at Fried Rice.
I hope this inspires you to create some fantastic meals that are easy
to prepare when you only have a little time to spare. Keep a few
ingredients in the pantry for an unexpected busy work day and you won’t
be spending an age in the kitchen preparing the family meal.
When I was growing up, Easter usually meant a ham dinner. Of course, I love the memories of my mother's cooking and being with my family. I must admit most of the time when I was older and cooked Easter dinner for family, I bought a spiral sliced ham. If you are having ham on Easter or any other occasion, don't just throw away the bone from your ham. It's great for soup and ham broth. It's also wonderful to add to a pot of collard greens or cabbage. You can keep the ham bone in the fridge for 5 days or freeze it for at least a few months.
Today's recipe is classic white bean and ham soup. Very often family members get tired of a holiday menu when having it warmed up several times. Besides adding the ham bone for great flavor, the soup is the perfect way to use left over ham and vegetables. The next time you have a ham dinner for the family, plan to make bean and ham soup and use the ham bone and any leftovers in the soup. I'm using navy beans, but you could add other beans or peas too. Add onions, celery, carrots, garlic, and herbs for a comforting bowl that's inexpensive and filling. If you don't have a ham bone, you can use a ham hock. It's similar. I was raised in the south so I grew up with homemade corn bread to accompany the meal, but it's great with rolls, biscuits, or crusty bread.
Bean & Ham Bone Soup
Use organic when available. 8 Servings
Ingredients
16ozdried navy beans (or great northern beans)
8cupswater
1ham bone or smoked ham hock
2tbspolive oil
1cupdiced onion
1cupchopped celery
1cupchopped carrot
2garlic cloves minced
1tspdried thyme
1tbspdried parsley
1tspmustard
1tbsplemon juice
bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
2 cupschopped ham
Instructions
Sort and rinse beans
Soak beans overnight in large pot or bowl covered with at least 4 inches of water
Drain and discard the liquid
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a 4-quart soup pot over medium high heat
Add onion and celery & cook for 2 minutes
Add garlic and cook for another minute
Add 8 cups of water to soup pot with lemon juice, beans, bone, thyme, parsley, mustard, salt, pepper, and bay leaves
Bring the mixture to a boil
Reduce heat to low and simmer covered
Cook for 2 to 3 hours
Stir occasionally and add more water if needed
Add chopped ham and carrots the last 20 to 30 minutes of cooking
When beans are tender, remove bone and cut off any meat
Discard bone, gristle and bay leaves
Add ham back to pot
If soup seems too thin, use potato masher to mash some of the beans in the soup
Optional sprinkle fresh chopped herbs or green onion on bowl of soup
Serve with crusty bread, corn bread, rolls or biscuits
Spring time means newborn animals, leaves on trees, grass starting to
grow, and flowers pushing up in the garden. It is a time for new life
and fun food. I enjoy food art. Spring and Easter are a perfect time to
make cute food to celebrate. Last week I shared the classic cute bunny cake for spring and Easter. It is made from 2 round cakes with artistic cuts on
one cake. The classic bunny cake has been around since the 1950s.
Today, I wanted to consider some of the different ways
to make cakes that look like a lamb. A lamb is a symbol of renewal and has long been at the
center of Easter tradition.
I. Lamb Cake Using a Lamb Mold
This is one of the most popular ways to make a lamb cake. There are numerous posts with a molded lamb cake. Wilton has great instructions on how to make the lamb cake with the Wilton
3D standing cake pan. They decorated the cake with flat white icing
first. Then using an icing tip and bag, they added swirls on the body
for wool and colored accents. I personally would find this way of
decorating hard as I’ve never been great at piping icing details. The face is the flat white icing with colors for lines for
mouth and eyes. Their lamb’s face is cute and not hard to make.
Wilton also has a cake iced with a spatula and leaving the face bare.
You can make this with white cake or chocolate. I think it’s really cute
and Wilton ranks it for a beginner.
If you do a search for lamb cakes, you will find hundreds of posts with
varying ways to decorate one. The faces often look very different. Some
of the cakes show how hard it can be working with a mold. The faces are
distorted. Part of the difference in the face is the brand of lamb mold
you are using. Nordic Ware‘s 3 D Lamb Cake Pan is another standing lamb cake. Below is their chocolate version with the body covered in icing and the head bare chocolate cake.
A
glaze was used on the face. Then using a buttercream icing piped
rosettes were placed around the body. A straw was used to pop out the
eyes and then a knife was used to make the nose and mouth. Finally
pre-made cake decorations from Walmart and green coconut decorate the cake.
No matter the brand of mold you use, the piped icing is probably the
most popular decorated lamb cake. An attractive alternative is using
coconut on white icing to make a wool coat for the lamb. I really loved
this idea as a coconut cake was the first cake I learned to make as a
child. It was fun and delicious. Below is a version shared atA Taste of Home with coconut on the body and candy on the face. A lamb cake looks great as a centerpiece for Easter dinner.
I like the idea of not having to spend $20 to $l30 for a lamb cake
mold. My small home does not have lots of storage space. There are so
many ways to decorate a round cake for Easter with a lamb theme. The
easiest is Kraft’s Simple Lamb Cake. Bake your favorite cake and add
white icing on the cake. Use miniature marsh mellows to circle the top of
the cake once. Then add 2 more rows of marshmallows at the top to make
wool coming down to meet his face. Use melted chocolate to make eyes and
mouth. A candy is the nose. Cookies are ears. So cute and easy.
One of the most common methods to decorate a round cake is using
flat white icing on the whole cake. Then add any decorative piping for a
wooly frame for the face. Below is a sponge cake decorated with a cream
icing. Melted chocolate was used for facial features. Round small
crackers or cookies are the ears.
You can easily decorate a round cake with a cake topper made for the season. Below is a great example from Good Housekeeping. This handmade lamb cake topper is made with a Rice Krispies treat, cotton candy, and marshmallows. Everything is edible and unexpected.
Online there are many toppers and cookie molds to help you decorate your cake. Most would be put on the top, but they can also be added to sides of a cake for a cute cake. Below are a set of two lamb cookie cutters. Bake and decorate your cookies for a colorful display.
The Food Network has a darling lamb cake you make from 3 round cakes. Complete instructions are givien at How to Make an Easter Lamb Cake. It is a more complex cake design.
The Food Network has another recipe with instructions that
makes a lamb cake from cupcakes. It seems much easier to me than cutting
3 cakes like the recipe above. Who doesn’t love cute cupcakes?
Last week at the farmer’s market, one grower had a little packet of fresh new asparagus which reminded me of a spring Quiche. Fresh asparagus, cherry tomatoes, and basil cooked in a cheesy custard sounds perfect for breakfast, lunch, brunch, or even dinner. An asparagus Quiche is one of my favorites for an Easter or spring brunch.
I usually use Swiss cheese but have enjoyed quiches made from a variety of cheeses. Your favorite crust can be used – even store-bought. If you cannot have grains in your diet, you can oil the pie plate and cook the vegetable custard without a crust.
Asparagus & Tomato Quiche
Use organic when available, vegetarian Serves 7 to 8
Ingredients
6 eggs or 4 whole eggs and 2 egg whites
1 bunch of asparagus or 7 or 8 stalks
1 9" pie shell
1/2 cup milk
1 cup cream
1 cup grated cheese, such as Swiss, cheddar, Gruyère
1/4 cup torn fresh basil
1 cup cherry tomato halves
Salt and pepper to taste
optional medium tomato to cut into pinwheel slices for decoration
Instructions
Preheat oven to 425 F or 218 C
Oil pie pan and add dough
Fork bottom of pie crust and cover crust edges with aluminum foil to prevent over-browning
Bake pie crust for about 5 minutes
Remove aluminum foil and bake pie crust for another 8 minutes until almost done
Reduce oven to 325 F or 162 C
Meanwhile, bring water to a boil in a large pot
Cut most of the asparagus into pieces and save some for top of Quiche
Once water is boiling, add the cleaned & trimmed asparagus into pot & boil for 1 minute
Remove immediately and run under cold water to stop the cooking process
Set asparagus aside
Whisk the eggs in a large bowl and add the milk and cream
Whisk together thoroughly and then stir in the shredded cheese, basil, salt & pepper
Add cooked asparagus and tomato slices to bottom of pie shell
Pour custard mix on top
Adorn top with cherry tomatoes and asparagus (optional)
Bake for 35 minutes or until center is firm
Cover edges of crust with aluminum foil if the crust starts to burn
Let quiche stand for at least 5 minutes before cutting
Can be made ahead of time and served at room temperature.
Optional decorate top of quiche with sliced tomato cut into pinwheels in center of top & asparagus around edge pointing in
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