North African Mixed Grill

In my travels, I spent about six weeks total (over two different trips) in North Africa. I think I'm the type of person that falls in love with different cultures pretty easily. It doesn't take much for me to be wooed and wowed by the food, music, and people of places that are different than what I've grown up with. I love trying new things and, honestly, a good food experience can make me a fan in no time.

That's what happened when I went to Tunisia. Settled on the Mediterranean/North African coast, just below Italy, it is a culture infused with olives, hot chili peppers, lamb, seafood, and pungent spices. My love and tolerance for spicy food was birthed in Tunisia, and I will be forever grateful for the experience.

One of the staples of Tunisian cuisine is merguez, a rich and slightly spicy lamb sausage that is often served with couscous and vegetables. So, when we found some of this sausage at the public market in Seattle, we took some home and stored it in the freezer for a special dinner.

I defrosted it overnight, and planned to grill them up with some great zucchini and asparagus that we got in our CSA box. We also had spring onions, so I threw those in as well.

I had also just made a Costco trip and had some rotisserie chicken ready to eat. I cut up the breast meat and sprinkled it with a little spice rub made up of coriander, cumin, granulated garlic, salt, pepper, and some paprika. Then I put that on the grill just to heat it through.

To accompany the grilled fare, I made a coucous, also with some fresh ingredients from the CSA box. We got mint (another inspiration for the meal) and then I saved some of the green parts from the spring onions to add to it.

To make the couscous, I used Trader Joe's Whole Wheat CousCous. I follow the intructions on the box and use a 1:1 ratio, couscous to liquid. I didn't have any chicken stock, but wanted to make it more flavorful, so I added 1/2 a cube of chicken bouillon to the water as it cooked, along with a 1/2 tsp of olive oil and a dash of salt.

As the water boiled, I gathered some other fun ingredients to put into the couscous: raisins and slivered almonds (which I toasted lightly in a dry sautee pan).

When the water boils, you turn off the heat and cover the pan to let it steam. After a few minutes the grain is ready to be fluffed up with a fork and then you can add all the goodies - in went the raisins, almonds, onions, and mint.

Paired with the merguez, chicken, and veggies, this made for a filling and healthy meal. The sausage was a little on the game-y side, so my husband wasn't a huge fan, but that just meant there was more for me! He did enjoy everything else though (note: that was everything that I made!). And, it was a fun way to literally spice up the Costco chicken. It's amazing how easy it is to bring ingredients that seemed a little random together to make something tasty and nostalgic at the same time. It brings back great memories of eating with my North African friends!

May you be inspired to cook up something that reminds you of your travels or just good food experiences of the past - to share them with others and relive the memories...happy cookin'.

Brownie + Cookie = Brookie!

I wish I had a better picture...one with a cross-section of the treat would have been good...sorry!

I first saw these on an episode of Unique Sweets on the Cooking Channel. Then about a week later, my cousin posted a picture of the ones she made and called them "brookies." That was it. I made it my next baking mission to try out these little genius treats.

A chocolate chip cookie baked into a brownie. The best of both worlds. No need to choose one over the other. Or feel guilty for having one of each. Just eat one of these yummy baked goods and you'll be satisfied...at least for the moment before you contemplate having another.

I used a boxed brownie mix by Duncan Hines - Dark Chocolate Brownies.

Follow the directions exactly as the box says...

I did make the cookie dough from scratch, although you could do the same and use a mix. It doesn't really matter.

I used my personal favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe from Kitchen Aid. It's my fave because they are really chewy (lots of brown sugar), soft, and a little cake-y. Not crispy or flat.

Here's the recipe:
Kitchen Aid's Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup softened butter (thanks Eleanor for noticing this was missing before!)
2 eggs
1.5 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
12 oz. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix sugars, butter, eggs, and vanilla in a medium-large mixing bowl with a hand mixer or in your stand mixer (like a Kitchen Aid - wink, wink). Blend it for about 2 minutes until everything is well incorporated. Sift the flour, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Stir in chocolate chips by hand. Drop by spoonfuls on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before transfering to a wire rack to cool completely.

Now, you'll notice, that is the normal cookie recipe. For the brookies, instead of dropping spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet, I greased two muffin tins with cooking spray, and then put in one heaping spoonful of brownie batter and one spoonful of cookie dough.

Here's what they look like after baking for 15-20 minutes:

It made exactly 24 muffin-sized brookies. They would be awesome served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of chocolate syrup. But, they are so good on their own too!

Happy bakin'!

Baked Egg Cups On The Go

When I first got married, I was in graduate school and worked part-time. For the first four months or so, I would wake up each day when my husband got up for work and make him an egg sandwich to eat on the way to work. Toasted bread with a little bit of butter and cheesy scrambled eggs, all wrapped up in a papertowel and a cup of coffee in a travel mug. I was ambitiously domestic.

Five years later, even though I work at home, let's face it...I'm not always motivated to make breakfast early in the morning. However, I've discovered a few shortcuts in order to still have a healthy, filling meal on the go for my man. :) Food is my love language.

One of my shortcuts is the baked egg cup. I found the idea in the South Beach Diet book. You can make a bunch of them early in the week and they will last for a few days!

They are like mini omelets that you can fill with whatever you have on hand. I use egg substitute or just egg whites, but you can just as easily scramble up whole eggs and fill up the muffin tin in the same way.

Preheat your oven to 325F. Generously coat the muffin tin with cooking spray. Add 2-3 tablespoons of veggies and cheese (and meat if you like) - whatever you have in your fridge.  Then pour in the egg so there's about a 1/4 inch from the top of the tin. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. If you like it spicy, you can add a dash of hot sauce too.

These egg cups had sauteed asparagus, green onion, and shredded cheddar cheese.

Bake them in the oven for 30 minutes or until the egg sets. They will puff up quite a bit, but they deflate once you let them rest on the counter. They keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or can be stored in the freezer for a couple of months. The muffin size is great for portion control. Two or three of these heated up in the morning will fill me up for the entire morning. Kids will love them too. And, they are carb-free. Try adding these to your breakfast repetoire...happy cookin'!

Mediterranean Flank Steak & Lemony Pasta With Greens

This was successful meal. And it felt fancy, but it's pretty simple to make. The pasta dish is completely vegetarian, and can be made as the main dish for non-meat eaters. I just decided to grill up a steak to go with it. It was a great compliment to the pasta and greens.

I had seen the recipe for the pasta on Cookie and Kate, while browsing the site one day. It looked yummy and healthy and simple. So, when I received some beautiful swiss chard in my CSA box, I knew it was time to make it happen.

I've also been trying to clean out my freezer, and came across a frozen flank steak. With all the turkey we've been eating, a nice steak sounded wonderful. I pulled it out and let it defrost.

The pasta dish is sort of Mediterranean, with pine nuts and citrus, topped with parmesan cheese. I searched the internet for Mediterranean steak marinades, and gathered ideas to make my own. This is what I put in mine:

Salt, pepper, 3 cloves of crushed garlic, 3-4 tablespoons of roughly chopped rosemary (from my garden), the juice of one large lemon, a drizzle of olive oil, and about 1 cup of red wine.

I let it chill in the refrigerator while I prepped everything for the pasta.

I took the white stem/rib off of each chard leaf, stacked them up, rolled them up and then chopped them into long thin ribbons, about 1/2 inch thick.

Then, in a large, empty sautee pan, I toasted about 1/8 cup of pine nuts. When they were fragrant and a little brown, I removed them from the pan and set them aside for later.

Then I added 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil to the hot pan and sprinkled in a pinch of red chili flakes. This infuses the spicy flavor into the oil and flavors the greens perfectly!

My pasta water was boiling, so I added the thin whole wheat spaghetti to the pot, and the greens to the pan, letting them cook at the same time.

As soon as the pasta was al dente, I added it to the greens and let them "get happy" (as Emeril LaGasse would say).

Meanwhile, I got the meat on the grill pan, letting it sear on each side for about 5 minutes. When it was firm to the touch and seared on both sides, I removed it from the heat and wrapped it in aluminum foil to rest and let the juices redistribute throughout the steak.

To plate, take some pasta and greens and top it with the toasted pine nuts, shaved parmesan cheese, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Slice the flank steak against the grain, and garnish with a lemon wedge.

You will not regret this meal. It's fresh, and light, but filling at the same time. You could serve it with chicken breast or sweet Italian sausage instead of steak. You can make the pasta with spinach or collards instead of chard. Use what you have and enjoy it!

Italian Wedding Soup

Italian Wedding Soup. Is it traditionally served at weddings in Italy? No. It's just a funny translation for minestra maritata, vegetables "married" to meat in a soup. Celeb chefs always talk about "letting flavors marry." That's what this soup is talking about. Let the greens love on those meatballs. Oh yeah.

I looked at my stash of veggies and saw the makings of a good hearty soup. Carrots, Swiss chard, leeks (yes, more leeks), celery. More ground turkey and barley I've been wanting to use came out of the refrigerator. Homemade chicken stock defrosted overnight. Soup time was here.

All I needed was a little help with a recipe. I found Ina Garten's (a.k.a. the Barefoot Contessa) {recipe} on foodnetwork.com. It sounded perfect to me. I was not disappointed.

You start by making the meatballs and baking them in the oven.

Then you start the soup base. Olive oil in the pot...

...then add your chopped veggies (everything but the leafy greens). Notice I used leeks in place of onion again. That's all I had...

Cook those down and add the stock, bringing it all to a boil. Add the barley or rice or little pasta (whatever you like).

Finish it off by adding the greens. I used chard, but you could use the traditional spinach or even collards. Then don't forget the meatballs. This is assuming you haven't eaten all of them before the soup was ready. They are really very delicious on their own. Trust me. I know.

Ladel out a bowl for you and yours. Top it with grated parmesan cheese. Eat. Repeat.

Happy cookin'!

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

Okay, friends. Brace yourselves. It's another yogurt recipe. I just can't stop. I'm addicted to baking with yogurt. Is there a support group out there for folks like me?

Just look at it, though. Doesn't it look scrumptious? It was. Like, seriously, for reals. So moist. So chocolate-y. So bananalicious. So nom-nom.

And might I add, pretty healthy?!?



I found the {recipe} on the web at food.com. 

This is how it looks in a greased loaf pan before the oven...

And, after!

Here's the recipe:
Healthier Yogurt Banana Bread via Sharon123 on food.com
1 cup sugar
2 eggs (I used egg substitute)
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup applesauce
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup plain yogurt or sour cream (I used Greek yogurt)
3/4 cup whole wheat flour (you can use 100% all-purpose flour if you want)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 T wheat germ
1 T wheat or oat bran (I used another tablespoon of wheat germ, because I didn't have the bran)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup mashed ripe banana (2-3 bananas)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a loaf pan (5x9) with cooking spray. You can also double the recipe and use a bundt pan if you'd like. Cream margarine/butter, applesauce, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients, then add bananas, yogurt or sour cream, and nuts and chocolate chips if you choose. Bake for 1 hour or if using mini loaf pans, 45 minutes or until a toothpick goes in and comes out clean. Let it cool for at least 30 minutes.

I love the crusty outside and the amazingly moist inside and melted chocolate bits. Yum. You gotta try this. Happy bakin'!

Turkey Meatloaf With A Twist

It's been a busy week of travel and then catching up with work stuff. It feels good to be back in blogland to share this fun recipe with you!

I don't know about you, but I really love meatloaf. It's one of those meals that is comforting and reminds me of my dad. When we were little he used to make this awesome meatloaf with chunky fresh vegetables and bacon on the top. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. Can you hear my stomach growling?

The other day I was craving a good meatloaf. And when I get thinking about something, I don't rest until I get it done. I wanted to use the ground turkey I had thawing in the refrigerator and I also had a huge package of firm tofu that needed to be used. I wondered if it was possible to combine the two in a loaf. I mean, I suppose anything is possible, but would it be yummy?

It never ceases to amaze me - all the things you can find on the internet. I searched for tofu and turkey meatloaf and more than one recipe popped up. Nice!

Here's the recipe with my notes:

Glazed Tofu Meatloaf, adapted from allrecipes.com
1-14oz. package of firm tofu (I used a little more than that)
2 lbs ground turkey (I used about 1.25 lbs)
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1-1oz. packet of dry onion soup mix (I didn't have this, so I used 1tsp onion powder, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1tsp Italian seasoning, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper)
1/4 cup diced green pepper (I used leeks...surprise!)
2 eggs
Glaze:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp yellow mustard
*I also added about 1/4 cup ketchup to the glaze

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly spray a 9 inch baking dish (or whatever you have that's close) with cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, mash the tofu with a potato masher or with a fork.

Then add the turkey, bread crumbs (I cut up some old bread), spice mix, green pepper (or leeks!), and eggs. Combine thoroughly, but don't over mix. Spread the meal mixture into the pan evenly or shape into a loaf (either is fine).

In a small bowl, add the ingredients for the glaze. Wisk together until smooth. This mixture is pretty wet, so don't worry if it seems runny. Pour the glaze over the meatloaf.

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 180F.

Slice and enjoy! I served mine with pureed cauliflower and boiled cabbage. My husband didn't even know there was tofu in it and the glaze adds a great sweetness to it. It was really tasty and healthy. Next time you are wondering what to do with tofu, remember this recipe. :)  Happy cookin'!