Salmon & Noodle Bowl

This is the last day of my 1-sentence posts, so come back tomorrow for something a little more verbose (maybe); I like to cook fish because my family adores it and this recipe was so fast I couldn't believe it- you just cook up some noodles, and add a few things, top it off with some salmon and everyone wins!

Salmon & Noodle Bowl from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine: Market Fresh Suppers

1 9-oz pkg. refrigerated fettucine
2 Tbls olive oil
1 lb skinless, boneless 1-inch-thick salmon, cut into 8 pieces
salt and pepper
6 cups packaged fresh baby spinach
3/4 cup bottled roasted red bell peppers
1/2 cup reduced- calorie balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing (I used Newman's Own Light Balsamic Vinaigrette)

1. Prepare pasta according to package directions.
2. Meanwhile, brush 1 Tbls olive oil on salmon. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat an extra-large skillet over medium heat; add salmon. Cook 8 to 12 minutes or until salmon flakes, turning once.
Remove salmon; cover and keep warm.
Add spinach, peppers, and remaining oil to skillet. Cook and stir 1 to 2 minutes, until spinach is wilted. Drain pasta; add to skillet.
3. Add dressing; toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Divide spinach-pasta mixture among four bowls. Top with salmon.

One Year Ago-Root Beer Freeze and Perfect Party Cake

Banana Buttermilk Pancakes with Peanut Butter and Jelly Syrups

Breakfast gets boring sometimes, so I try to liven it up; overripe bananas make the perfect addition to pancake batter- you just mash them up, whip up some buttermilk pancakes (I used this recipe, but you could use a mix if you want) and add some tasty toppings, like peanut butter and jelly, turned into syrup; we enjoyed this breakfast on a weekend when there is a little bit more time for everyone to sit down and eat breakfast to together and enjoy we did!
Peanut Butter and Maple Syrup ( this whole idea and the pb syrup inspired by this recipe)
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
2 heaping Tbls peanut butter or more depending on the consistency you want

Combine maple syrup and peanut butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat and stir until peanut butter is melted and syrup is smooth.
Serve over pancakes

Strawberry Syrup by Mary Ann
1/2 cup strawberry jam (I used Smuckers Simply Fruit)
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh strawberries

Heat strawberry jam in a small saucepan over medium heat, or in the microwave, until melted- stir in chopped strawberries. Serve over pancakes

One Year Ago- Disappearing Zucchini Orzo

MS: Cupcake Club (MSC)- Chocolate Salted-Caramel Cupcakes

MSC started as an idea by Sugar B- she had bought Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Cookbook and she sent out a plea;
she had owned it a month and not a cupcake had been made, she need motivation and a gameplan (we all joined in!);
we decided to bake 1 cupcake a month starting with these delicious, chocolate mini-cupcakes, filled with salted-caramel (don't be scared of this part- watch it close and act fast!), topped with satiny dark chocolate frosting and a sprinkle of sea salt;
I made 1/4th of the recipe and they disappeared fast- go check out Sugar B's blog for the Blogroll of MSC!


You can find the recipe HERE or on page 148 of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes


One Year Ago- Cheesecake Pops, Lemon Meringue Cupcakes, and Chocolate & Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars

Blackberry-Peach Coffee Cake with Streusel Topping

I am not really sure how some things qualify as breakfast , when they have the word cake in the recipe title; I won't complain because I like making treats and this one was enjoyed by the entire family- they loved it warm and they loved it cold- I made quite a few changes, including the size (I made 2 4-inch cakes and 2 smaller than those), the changes in the recipe are included in bold; I am short on words, so enjoy a few pics- in a few days the situation will be fixed.





Blackberry-Peach Coffee Cake adapted from Southern Living Magazine


Prep: 20 min.; Bake: 1 hr., 10 min.; Cool: 1 hr., 30 min.


Streusel Topping
1/2 cup butter, softened (I used 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup vanilla flavored Greek style yogurt)
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk (I used 1/3 cup whole milk and 1/3 cup skim)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups peeled and sliced fresh firm, ripe peaches (about 2 large peaches, 7 oz. each)
1 cup fresh blackberries
Powdered sugar
Garnishes: fresh blackberries, sliced peaches

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare Streusel Topping.

2. Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add granulated sugar, beating well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition.

3. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; add to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Pour batter into a greased and floured 9-inch springform pan; top with sliced peaches and blackberries. Pinch off 1-inch pieces of Streusel Topping, and drop over fruit.

4. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 10 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes or until center of cake is set. (A wooden pick inserted in center will not come out clean.) Cool completely on a wire rack (about 1 1/2 hours). Dust with powdered sugar. Garnish, if desired.

Note: We found that using a shiny or light-colored pan gave us the best results. If you have a dark pan, wrap the outside of the pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil to get a similar result.

Peach Coffee Cake: Omit blackberries. Increase peaches to 3 cups sliced (about 3 large peaches, 7 oz. each). Proceed with recipe as directed

Streusel Topping


Prep: 10 min.

This recipe goes with Blackberry-Peach Coffee Cake, Peach Coffee Cake

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1. Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add granulated sugar and brown sugar, beating well. Add flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg; beat just until blended.

I didn't follow the streusel directions. I mixed 1/2 cup flour with 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon. Then I cut in 4 Tbls of cold butter and sprinkled it on top of the coffee cake.

One Year Ago- Panzanella

CEiMB- Stuffed Turkey Burgers

Roasted red peppers and mozzarella cheese, stuffed inside a turkey burger (I used 93% lean), in my opinion, these couldn't be better- Peggy was the one responsible for this yummy choice; go visit her blog to see what she thought, to get the recipe (or go to the link below) and then, make one more quick stop at the CEiMB Blogroll to see what others stuffed inside their burgers and what their results turned out to be!
(Sick of the 1-sentence posts yet? or do you prefer short and sweet?)

Recipe for Stuffed Turkey Burgers

One Year Ago- Cheese-Stuffed Chicken in Phyllo and Dorie's Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes with Praline Buttercream and Ganache Filling

Party Chicken Salad

Ripe Georgia peaches, toasted pecans, fresh basil, and subbing fat-free mayo, made this take on Chicken Salad from Southern Living Magazine, a nice, summery lunch, which I served on rolls for my family, who all really liked the flavors and textures that complimented each other and it would also be a great recipe to serve at a baby shower or party of some kind because the versatility of the presentation, which is implied by the title, Party Chicken Salad.
(1-sentence blogging for a week- check out the participants- HERE!)

Recipe for Party Chicken Salad

Tuesday's with Dorie-Brownie Buttons

These cute, little, easy Brownie Buttons-with lemon zest (not orange), were made by me 1 year ago, baked by everyone else sometime in the last few weeks, chosen by Jayma (Two Scientists Experimenting in the Kitchen), devoured by my little brothers friends, and yes, there is a reason why this is a giant, run-on sentence with tons of links, so check the reason out if you are curious.

Cheesesteak Sliders

This is the last recipe I have to post about from our 4th of July celebration in DC.

I am always drawn to healthy recipes with lots of vegetables, which is why we had the Edamame Bread Salad, Garden Sliders, and Summer Squash Stacks, oh, and the
Oven Baked Onion Rings, with our meal on the 4th.

I am not a meat lover, but some members of my family are and so, I decided that I should make something that they would really love.

My hubby really likes Philly Cheesesteaks. When he was working at a hospital, when we were first married, I would go and meet him for lunch at the cafeteria occasionally. (Isn't that romantic?) He would always order a Philly Cheesesteak there and there are other places where that is his menu item of choice.

I saw these cute little sliders and thought they would work with our other lunch items.

There was a lot going on in the kitchen on the day we made these, so I have to be perfectly honest and say that my cutest little sister ever, Laura Dawn, did all the work on these. (She really isn't little, she is only a few years younger than me, but I still call her my little sister).

She prepped the meat, cut the peppers, cooked it all and the results were super good.
She actually surprised herself when she took a bite. She couldn't believe they were so good because the recipe was soo easy.

The meat lovers in the family were happy and so was everyone else.

Cheesesteak Sliders from Everyday with Rachael Ray Magazine

• 7 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (We reduced the amount of oil a bit-can't remember exactly)
  
• 1 pound beef tenderloin, cut into thin strips
• Salt and pepper
• 2 large bell peppers, cut into thin strips
• 2 onions, halved and thinly sliced
• 16 dinner rolls, split
• 6 ounces provolone cheese, shredded (about 1 1/2 cups) (We used sliced)
  

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°. In a large skillet, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat until rippling. Season the beef with salt and pepper, increase the heat to high and cook in the skillet for 3 minutes; flip and cook for 2 minutes more. Transfer to a bowl.

2. In the same skillet, heat the remaining 1/4 cup olive oil over medium heat. Add the peppers and onions, season with salt and pepper and cook over medium high heat, stirring, until softened, about 8 minutes.

3. Place the roll bottoms on a large rimmed baking sheet and top each with the beef and vegetables; sprinkle with the cheese. Bake until the cheese is melted, about 6 minutes. Transfer to a platter and cover with the roll tops.

Simple Side Dish- Summer Squash and Spinach Saute

I really wasn't trying to use as many S's as possible on the title of this post. It just kind of happened.
One of our favorite side dishes is sauteed spinach. I usually prepare it with fresh lemon juice, a little garlic and salt, and some freshly grated Parmesan- like I did HERE or with turkey bacon and mushrooms- Here.
My kids absolutely love it. And I love the fact that they love something so green.

This time I decided to liven it up a little bit and add some summer squash to our spinach.
I sprayed an electric skillet with a little cooking spray and added my squash. Sprinkled on some Italian seasoning and added a couple Tbls of water to keep it from sticking to the bottom.
I sauteed it just enough that it still had a bite to it- no mushy squash for us.
Then I added our spinach and just sauteed it for a minute- just until it was wilted.
Add a bit more Italian seasoning and there you have it- A Super Simple Summer Side Dish.

Summer Squash Stacks with Roasted Red Bell Pepper Sauce

I saw this recipe in Southern Living magazine, and thought it just sounded like a really simple summer dish. I made it on the same day that we had the Garden Sliders, so I ended up roasting a whole bunch of zucchini and summer squash in the oven and pretty much did my own thing as far as this recipe goes.

These stacks were supposed to be taller and probably wider, but I wanted to make them smaller and simpler, so we just had 1 slice of summer squash, 1 slice of mozzarella, and 1 slice of zucchini per stack. Some of them we topped off with a slice of roasted red pepper, just for fun.

The roasted red pepper sauce was really good. We used it as a spread for our sandwiches later and it held up really well.

I love summer. So many fresh vegetables and fruits that can be easily prepared to make delicious meals!



Summer Squash Stacks with Roasted Red Bell Pepper Sauce from Southern Living Magazine

• 1 medium-size yellow squash, cut diagonally into 8 (1/4-inch-thick) slices (about 3/4 lb.)
• 2 medium zucchini, cut diagonally into 16 (1/4-inch-thick) slices (about 1 lb.)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 (8.8-oz.) package fresh mozzarella cheese
• 16 basil leaves
• Roasted Red Bell Pepper Sauce
• Garnish: freshly shaved Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Brush squash and zucchini with oil; place in a single layer in a jelly-roll pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake 5 minutes or until crisp-tender.

2. Cut mozzarella into 8 (1/4-inch-thick) slices. Cut each slice in half. Place half of zucchini on a serving platter. Layer with half each of mozzarella and basil. Top with yellow squash. Layer with remaining mozzarella, basil, and zucchini. Top with Roasted Red Bell Pepper Sauce. Garnish, if desired.

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Sauce

• 1 (7-oz.) jar roasted red bell peppers, drained
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar

1. Process all ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides as needed.

Blackberry Cornbread Muffins

Blackberries are yummy. They are in season and we eat a lot of them. I saw this recipe for Blackberry Cornbread a couple of months ago in Southern Living Magazine. I figured I should make it since I live in the south. The only problem is, no one in my family really likes cornbread.

Except me.

I grew up eating cornbread every once in awhile and we always had it with honey. My mom made it in a cast iron skillet.

My hubby did trick me once when we were newlyweds. We were eating dinner at someone's house and they had made some kind of cornbread that looked like little corncobs (some sort of cornbread pan), and he ate it.

I decided that was enough of a reason to make it at home. When I did, he wouldn't eat it. I told him I saw him eating it at someone else's house and he told me he was being polite. Those darn Southerners and their manners.
I went back and forth about making this, but the curious side of me won out. I decided to make the recipe into muffins, luckily the people at the magazine had already thought of this and had also made directions for muffins. I decided to reduce the recipe and make 1/4 of it. I would only end up with 6 muffins, which really isn't that many.

I was going to substitute greek yogurt for the sour cream and when I was mixing these up, I realized that I grabbed vanilla bean flavored greek yogurt instead of plain. Since I like my cornbread on the sweet side and these had blackberries in them, I decided to go ahead and use the yogurt I had anyway.
I also used some egg white substitute instead of trying to divide an egg into 4 parts.

The results? I really liked them! I thought they were a nice twist on cornbread. There was just enough sweetness that they didn't need any honey and the blackberries added a yummy little tart hint of goodness.
My 2 year old liked them too. My 4 year old discovered she doesn't like the texture of cornmeal and my 7 year old and my hubby wouldn't even touch them.
Since I only made 6 muffins, none of that even mattered. My baby and I enjoyed them for breakfast the next day.


Blackberry Cornbread Muffins adapted from Southern Living Magazine, June 2009

Prep: 15 min., Bake: 15 min., Cool: 5 min.
We also tested this recipe using 1/2 cup melted butter in place of the canola oil and loved the rich, pound cake-like flavor it gave to these sweet cornbread muffins. They're delicious with peach preserves.


2 cups self-rising white cornmeal ( I used 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup sugar (I used 2 Tbls)
5 large eggs (I used 1 egg and 1 Tbls egg white substitute)
1 (16-oz.) container sour cream (I used 4 oz. vanilla bean flavored Greek yogurt)
1/2 cup canola oil (I used 2 Tbls canola oil)
2 cups fresh blackberries (I used 2/3 cup blackberries, plus a few on top for decoration)

1. Preheat oven to 450°. Stir together cornmeal and sugar in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Whisk together eggs, sour cream, and oil; add to cornmeal mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in blackberries. Coat 2 muffin pans with vegetable cooking spray; spoon batter into muffin pans, filling three-fourths full.

2. Bake at 450° for (I baked mine for 14 minutes) 15 to 17 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Cool in pan on a wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack.

Yield: Makes 2 dozen muffins (I made 6 muffins)

Edamame Bread Salad

I love tomatoes. I saw these pretty heirloom tomatoes and knew they would be perfect for this recipe.
Unfortunately, my husband hates tomatoes more than anything in the whole entire world.

How could you hate these beauties?

I had to make this recipe and I knew my hubby wouldn't be eating the tomatoes, so I made it when there were a bunch of us all together. The tomato lovers way outnumbered the tomato haters.
This is a really delicious salad.
The greek yogurt/feta cheese spread is fabulous on its own and so is the edamame/green bean/tomato salad part with the balsamic dressing. The kids were eating the vegetable mixture like crazy.
Then when you add a nice slice of whole grain bread, it really turns into something fantastic.

I thought it was a really great take on bread salad. The cheese spread and vegetable mixture can be made ahead, so when you are ready to serve, it really only takes a couple of minutes to put this delicious meal together. Plus, eating something this colorful and light just makes you feel good.

Yum.

Edamame Bread Salad from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine

• 3/4 cup feta cheese
• 1/2 cup Greek yogurt or plain low-fat yogurt
• 2 Tbsp. snipped fresh basil
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 2 12-oz. pkgs. frozen soybeans (edamame)
• 1-1/2 lbs. fresh green beans, trimmed
• 1 recipe Balsamic Dressing, below
• 2 cups yellow cherry tomatoes, halved
• 12 slices crusty country bread, toasted
• Fresh basil leaves

Directions

1. In bowl combine feta cheese and yogurt. Using fork mash into paste. Add basil and garlic, mash to blend. Season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate, covered, up to 8 hours.

2. In saucepan bring 8 cups lightly salted water to boiling. Add soybeans and green beans; return to boiling. Reduce heat and cook, covered, 6 to 8 minutes or until tender. Drain; cool. Prepare Balsamic Dressing.

3. Add tomatoes to bean mixture. Drizzle 1/2 of dressing; toss to coat. Refrigerate, covered, up to 8 hours. Toss before serving.

4. Spread feta mixture on bread slices; place slice on serving plate; mound bean mixture on top. Drizzle remaining dressing; sprinkle basil. Makes 6 servings.

5. Balsamic Dressing: In blender combine 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, and 1/4 cup lightly packed fresh basil leaves; blend until smooth. Add 2 tablespoons whipping cream and blend to mix. Season to taste with salt and pepper.