Slow Cooked Brisket

This is one of my favorite things I've made in a while! I've never made brisket before, but have been having a red meat craving for a month and thought I'd give it a try. It was exactly what I wanted - so so juicy and tender and full of flavor. The recipe I adapted was Emeril's (thanks Dania!), but I made it in a slow cooker instead of the oven and simplified some of the steps and ingredients. Original recipe is here.

Honey-Soy Salmon with Mango and Kiwi

Here's one to add to the short list of dinners P.J. and I both like! This was so quick to make, very healthy, and it really doesn't even need the rice.

Sweet Chili Lime Tofu with Collards and Rice

This flavorful tofu dish was a nice update to my regular tofu-vegetable-rice stir fry. The combination of the sugary glaze with a lot of lime juice and bitterness from the collard greens was really delicious.

The technique of "dry frying" the tofu (pressing out all the water and letting it sizzle away on a frying pan) makes the tofu much firmer. I think I will do this with tofu from now on.

Soy-Ginger Salmon with Bok Choy

The chef at my school makes bok choy with with a soy/ginger sauce that I love so I decided to try it at home with salmon and rice. The meal comes together in about half an hour. P.J. says he would order it in a restaurant every time if someone made it.

Eggs Benedict Caprese (Lightened Up)

I had eggs benedict caprese when I was in Denver last summer with my cousins and it was SO delicious so it's been in my mind as something I'd like to try ever since. I was reminded when I saw this eggs benedict caprese recipe on pinterest, but then I realized how not very healthy eggs benedict (and hollondaise sauce) is.

I woke up this morning and already had the ingredients on hand for this recipe since I made pizza margherita last night, so I decided to see if I could make a lightened up version of eggs benedict caprese. The resulting dish was so delicious! The hollondaise sauce is thinner than the usual, but the flavor was great so it didn't seem to matter.

For tips on how to perfectly poach an egg click here.

Easy Pizza Margherita

Pizza Margherita is so quick and easy. Since there is very little skill or work involved, the pizza is just as good as the ingredients you can find. The freshest and best quality mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, and pizza dough will make a big difference.  Even with very good ingredients, this pizza is still only about $10 or less. The basic method is to roll out the dough and bake it plain for about 8 minutes to make it crispy. While it's in the oven, slice the cheese and tomatoes and then compile everything and bake for about 10-12 minutes more.

Honey Mustard Pretzel Coated Chicken Fingers

I mostly made this recipe because I knew P.J. would like it, but I ended up really liking it too. I already had most of the ingredients so it was an inexpensive dinner, and pretty good for you too. Roasted broccoli roasts in the oven for about the same amount of time it takes for the chicken to cook (about 20 minutes). I happened to buy gluten free pretzels and they were really good, so this could be a gluten free meal.

Cuban Black Beans and Rice

This simple black bean and rice recipe comes together in the time it takes to cook the rice (20 minutes). Tastes even better the next day. Add cilantro and chopped radishes for extra flavor and garnish or keep it simple for a quick fix dinner.

Seared Salmon with New Potatoes and Spinach

I'm suddenly addicted to pinterest, which is where I found this recipe (thanks Laura Candeloro), originally from epicurious.com. I made some changes, and the result looks almost nothing like the photo from epicurious, but it was still very good. It's a little bit of work; took me about an hour of leisurely cooking. The good news is that all the steps can be done using just one large pan and one baking dish, so not too much clean up.

The recipe calls for white wine, but I ran out and added about a quarter cup of red, which is why the onions look like shredded beets.

Sweet and Saucy Meatballs

These meatballs are delicious as a main course served over rice (as pictured) or speared with a toothpick and served as appetizers. They are made with 94% lean turkey meat and are deceivingly low in calories and fat. After the first bite, PJ made the face he only makes when he really likes something. Success!

Blackened Fish Tacos

While in Albany this weekend for Dania and Daniel Dobosz's wedding (yay!), I found one of the first cookbooks I ever owned. I think it was a gift from my mom from a Pampered Chef party. It's called The Pampered Chef: It's good for you. The notes in the margins reminded me of some of the recipes I learned to cook from, including an amazing "good for you" cappuccino cheesecake. I remember being stressed out and sending PJ out in Astoria to buy a cup of strong coffee to use for it and feeling very unsure about how it would come out. It was soooo good.

Zucchini and Corn Tacos

Vegetarian tacos with spring vegetables were great for welcoming the warm weather last night. The chopping takes a little bit of time, but you could use frozen corn if in a hurry. Start with the corn, onion, and garlic ready to go and then you can chop the rest while those are cooking.

Pizza Patate

In my short stint as a baker at Sullivan St. Bakery, I couldn't get enough of this potato pizza. I've been craving it long enough that I finally (somewhat resentfully) caved in and bought Jim Lahey's cookbook. Let's face it, he can cook. I wasn't able to get it as crispy as he does on the top, most likely because I couldn't wait the hours of soaking time to eat it, but I'd suggest following his instructions for soaking the potatoes and try to remove as much water as you can from them in order to get crispy potato topping.

Spaghetti with Garlicky Greens

This quick and healthy weeknight supper has few ingredients but is surprisingly tasty. The confetti cut strips of swiss chard and kale blend in well with the spaghetti to make it easy to get a good bite. Cut and wash the greens while the pasta is cooking and this dish will come together in about 20 minutes. Omit the cheese and add some extra salt for a vegan version.

Pizza with Ricotta, Fennel, and Arugula

This is a nice white pizza for a weekday meal since it comes together quickly, and PJ can eat it because it has no red sauce. I've always avoided making home-made pizza because I have trouble with pizza dough, so this time I used store-bought and it was so much easier. If you have the knack for it, feel free to make your own dough!

Honey-Mustard Salmon with Potato-Fennel Puree and Garlic Spinach

My husband, P.J., had an idea one evening as we sat and ate our all American, Family Guy style, starch-protein-vegetable divided plates. He stacked his salmon on top of the potatoes, topped it with spinach, and we drizzled some of the pan sauce from the salmon over the top. It was immediately elevated from a boring I-couldn't-think-of-anything-better-to-make-for-dinner dish to an eye-catching presentation worthy of a special occasion. We dove in vertically with our forks, and the three elements combined into one bite created a lovely progression of acidic, sweet, salty, and bitter.

Cutting up or shredding the fennel in the potato puree can take a little longer, but if it is done with just regular mashed potatoes, this meal can easily be made in 20 minutes.

Claude Monet's Vegetable Soup (with matzo balls)

My grandma Judy brings this vegetable soup to Passover each year as a vegetarian option for the soup course. She says it is Monet's own recipe, taken from the cooking journals he kept at Giverny. I'm imagining that Monet was inspired to grow his own vegetables in the beautiful gardens at Giverny for this classical but inventive soup.

The soup bursts with an addictive sort of salty-sweet flavor that pairs so nicely with a matzo ball (which, of course, was added to this recipe post-Monet). I think the shredded sweet potato really does the trick.

To shred the vegetables, use a box grater or the shredding blade on a food processor.

Lemony Lentil Soup

Here is a recipe for a staple lentil soup that is clean and simple, courtesy of my friend Eleonore.  This and the Split Pea Soup posted recently are her two regular soup choices and both are great recipes.  Both are simple, inexpensive, light, vegan, easy on the stomach, and freeze well.  In this recipe, the fresh lemon juice brings out the flavor of the lentils really nicely and makes it so not very much salt is required to get great flavor. 

Split Pea Soup

This is a friend's split pea soup recipe.  She eats very, very healthily but says that this is a recipe that even "regular people" like.  She encouraged me to taste it, and now it is one of my favorite soups.  I admit it doesn't sound or look as good as it tastes, but it really is an excellent soup.  It is healthy, tasty, easy to make, inexpensive, and it freezes well.

I've always made this soup with green split peas, but our grocery store was out of them so I made it with yellow split peas this time.  It tastes exactly the same, but it does change the look.  Feel free to use either kind.

Rigatoni with Butternut Squash

This rigatoni has everything that I love about pasta with cheese sauce.  The thick and creamy sauce fills the pasta and bursts out when you bite into it.  It is inexpensive, comforting, and is ready quickly.  But unlike macaroni and cheese, it can be made completely dairy free and since the sauce is made mostly from pureed squash instead of cheese, it is a much more balanced, healthy meal.  I topped mine with some parmesan cheese and used 2% milk to thin the sauce, but the cheese is not needed and any kind of milk would work (soy, almond, lactaid, rice, etc.)  The sweet and salty in this dish is so comforting, and the fresh chopped basil adds some great dimension to the flavor.  PJ didn't believe me that there was no cheese in it!  Add some grilled chicken to this dish for an even heartier meal.