Parmesan Zucchini Crisps

Hey Everyone!

It's been a while. Like, 6 months. I got into a slump. A cooking slump, a life slump, a slumpy slump.

I'm not sure I'm totally out of it, but at least I've recently felt inspired to try cooking new things again. I'm completely out of practice for taking food photos, so I'm going to have ease back into taking good looking photos again.

I recently made these zucchini crisps I found on the EatingWell website (which I highly recommend as a healthy recipe search engine!).

Tony and I both really enjoyed them. They are simple enough to cook on a weeknight, but actually look pretty impressive when served!

Enjoy!

Parmesan Zucchini Crisps

Serves 2

Ingredients:
1 medium zucchini, sliced diagonally into1/4" medallions
1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Procedure:
1. Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat.
2. Add zucchini to skillet, toss in oil and cook for about 20 minutes, flipping the medallions over about half way through. The zucchini should be lightly browned on both sides and soft in the middle.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste, then place a pinch of Parmesan on top of each medallion. Cook on low heat for about 2 more minutes, or until cheese is melted.

Enjoy as a side or even an appetizer!

Candied Sweet Potatoes

So, this post may be a little bit late for "holiday" cooking, but this recipe is good all throughout the winter, and it can successfully impress any guests you have by it's appearance and taste.


Note: Also try out the Cranberry Sauce pictured in the background!

Candied Sweet Potatoes

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into french fries

1 Tbs flour

3/4 c sugar

1 Tbs cinnamon

1/2 lemon

1/3 c water

1 stick butter

nutmeg

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F, and grease a large (9"x13") baking dish.

2. Add cut sweet potatoes to dish. In a separate bowl, mix sugar, flour and cinnamon. Sprinkle over sweet potatoes.

3. Slice lemon thinly, twist and place about 4 slices on the potatoes.

4. Add the 1/3 c water (or however much water it takes to cover the bottom of the dish).

5. Slice butter into small pats, and place evenly over all of the sweet potatoes. Sprinkle a small amount of nutmeg over the entire dish (remember, a little goes a long way).

6. Cover with aluminum foil, and place in middle rack in the oven. Bake for 60 minutes, basting the potatoes every 15 minutes with the juice/water mixture in the bottom of the dish.

Breakfast Puffs

Note: This recipe is the exact recipe from BHG's Cookbook, called "Nan's Puffs".

These puffs are so simple.

So delicious.

So...adaptable! I made the bare-bones version at home this morning, but I can imagine so many delicious possibilities: Cheese and chive puffs, cinnamon and nutmeg puffs, custard filled puffs...and the list goes on.

These are a perfect "Sunday" breakfast in my mind: quick to make, only a few staple ingredients, and only 1 pot and 1 muffin tin to clean up! Perfect!

Breakfast Puffs

Makes 12 puffs

Ingredients:

1/2 c butter

1 c milk

3/4 c flour

4 eggs

sugar for sprinkling

honey for topping

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 375F, and grease a 12 cup muffin tin, inside and around the edges.

2. In a 2 quart saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add the milk and carefully (let's not repeat the dreaded TAPIOCA INCIDENT) bring to a boil.

3. Once boiling, immediately and quickly stir in all of the flour. The mixture will stick to itself and make a large ball, coming away from the sides of the saucepan. Allow the mixture to cool for 5 minutes.

4. After cooling, add the eggs one at a time, beating vigorously after each addition for one minute.

5. Scoop into equal portions in the muffin tin, filling the cups about 3/4 of the way full. Sprinkle sugar on top of each puff. Bake for 30 minutes at 375F, until puffed up and golden. Be careful not to startle the muffins too much (treat them as gently as you would a souffle, because they will deflate easily.

6. Serve immediately, drizzled with honey for extra sweetness.

Happy Muffin Says ENJOY! :)

Throw-It-Together Vegetable Soup

Hi Friends.

I'm sorry I've been absent from this blog for well over a month (or two) now. I haven't been posting because I haven't been cooking. We've been really busy, and I've been exceptionally tired after work, so we've been eating out, or eating "staple" meals that I've already described on this blog.

One day, however, I was really in the mood for some soup. So I decided to raid the fridge, freezer and pantry to concoct something sans recipe.

I hope you all can use this recipe as a foundation, and add or remove ingredients to your liking.

Hopefully, I'll be able to post a little more frequently now that the holidays are just around the corner and I will at least be doing some baking!

Throw-It-Together Vegetable Soup

Serves 6-8 (Or 2 people 3 times. Hah.)

Ingredients:

1/2 medium red onion, diced

1/2 bunch of celery, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 head of a small cabbage, shredded

1 can sweet corn, drained

1 can garbanzo beans, drained

1 can whole tomatoes, chopped and juice reserved

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp parsley

1 tsp Lawry's seasoned pepper (or any coarse ground pepper)

2 Tbs vegetarian bullion

8 cups water

salt to taste

Procedure:

1. In a large soup pot over medium heat, saute the onion and celery until translucent. Add the garlic and saute for about 30 seconds (don't let the garlic burn!).

2. Add all of the rest of the ingredients except the salt, and bring to a boil. Cover and turn the heat down to allow the soup to simmer.

3. Simmer on low heat for about 45 minutes, or until celery and onions are very tender. Finally, add salt to taste.

4. Serve with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese on top and a whole wheat roll on the side.