Originally I thought the whole Quarantine/Covid-19 would have allowed me extra time to focus on cooking and sharing these recipes with you, but obviously that was not the case. Maybe forcing me to stay home and cook caused the opposite reaction for me? I just wanted to go out and have someone else do the dishes! Oh well. Now that the super hot temps are starting to back off I’m finding some additional inspiration. This recipe was so easy and I had quite a few people asking me for it – so I’ll do my best.
I started with a package of chicken thighs, this time I used bone in skin on – that is what I had on hand. I put them in a zip lock bag with the following marinade. Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey, garlic powder, salt and pepper and lemon juice. I’ll do my best to give you amounts, but I really just started mixing until I liked how it tasted. I marinated in the fridge for most of the day. Sorry – I didn’t take as many pictures for you this time!
I chose to use a cast iron skillet for this one – any oven/stove safe dish should work. I placed my chicken thighs in the cast iron and put in the oven at 400 degrees. I set the timer for an hour. When checking on them around 30 minutes I found the tops were nicely browned so I decided to cover with foil and cooked only for another 15. I didn’t even check the temperature like normal, but remember the temperature for chicken is 165 degrees. Also – they will keep cooking after (especially in the cast iron) so if you are close but not quite there that is ok!
Once removed them from the oven, I moved them to a platter and placed my cast iron skillet on the stove over medium heat. I scrapped the bits off the bottom of the pan and de-glazed with a dry red wine. (you could also use white wine or chicken broth – I just had an open bottle of cooking wine already). Let this simmer for about 10 minutes until you have a thicker sauce consistency.
Lastly, I poured the sauce over the chicken in the serving platter before serving and I sprinkled with some dried thyme.
We really enjoyed this and it was very easy to put together. This time we decided to have roasted carrots and sauteed spinach with dinner. Hope you enjoy as well!
Roasted Honey Balsamic Chicken
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 5 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 4 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp garlic powder
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice (or a little more)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 6 pieces chicken thighs
- 2 cup dry red wine (or white wine or chicken broth)
- 1 tbsp dried thyme
Instructions
- Mix together the first 6 ingredients with a wisk. Place your chicken thighs in a zip lock or other container and pour the marinade on top. Place in the refrigerator for at least an hour and up to 24 hours. *I like to shake the bag several times through the day.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Place your chicken in a cast iron skillet (or oven/stove safe pan). Be sure to get as much of the marinade as you can in the pan as well. Place in oven and set time for approx 30 minutes.
- Check on your chicken at 30 minutes or so and if they are a beautiful brown, cover with foil. Cook another 15-30 minutes or until the internal temperature is 165 or close.
- Remove from oven. Place the chicken in a serving platter and your skillet on the stove with the remaining marinade.
- Turn the stove to medium/high heat. Scrape the bits off the bottom of the pan and deglaze with a dry red wine. I needed approx 2 cups to get the sauce amount and consistency needed, but start with about 1 cup. Simmer for about 10 minutes until you have a thicker sauce consistency.
- Pour your sauce on top of the chicken in the serving platter, coating each thigh. Sprinkle with dried thyme. Enjoy!
Scalloped Potatoes
I don’t make recipes like this very often. Like this meaning.. I consider it too unhealthy to include in a normal meal rotation for us. But.. I did grow up with a love for cream sauce and what is it really going to hurt every once in a while? The grocery store finally had potatoes on our most recent trip so we snagged a large bag and this just felt like the perfect side dish with our dinner the other night.
First, wash and slice your potatoes pretty thin (they will cook faster that way). I think we used about 4-5 average sized potatoes. We made a LOT – we are notorious for that! Next, melt a stick of butter in a pan. Grab your flour, milk, salt and pepper. Slowing add flour to your melted butter, stirring constantly until you get a nice thick consistency – about like the picture below. You can even go a little thicker – you will just need more milk!
Mix in your salt and pepper to taste. Then start slowing adding your milk until you have a nice, thick yet creamy consistency. It’s pretty darn tasty just like this!
Then add in some cheese. We chose to use sharp cheddar as that is what we had on hand. I’d say it was about a cup. Mix together over low/medium heat until the cheese is mostly melted. Careful not to let the cheese stick or burn to the bottom of the pan.
Take and oven safe dish and layer some sauce on the bottom, then a layer of your potatoes, more sauce and repeat.
It should look something like the picture above. Lastly, I topped this with fresh lemon thyme and parsley. The lemon really added a nice bright flavor to an otherwise somewhat heavy dish.
Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake another 30 minutes. You can use a fork test to make sure they are done, depending on how thick your slices were they could take a little longer. That’s it – enjoy!
Scalloped Potatoes
Ingredients
- 4 potatoes russet
- 1 stick butter
- 2 cups flour completely approximate!
- 2 cups milk again – approximate!
- 1 cup cheese sharp cheddar suggested
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon thyme
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley
Instructions
- Wash and thinly slice potatoes.
- Melt butter in pan and slowly add in flour about 1/4 cup at a time until you achieve a thick paste like consistency. Mix in salt and pepper to taste.
- Slowly mix in milk about 1/4 cup at a time mixing well until you have a nice creamy consistency.
- Add cheese and stir over low/medium heat until pretty much melted/incorporated, but be careful not to let your sauce burn or stick to the bottom of the pan.
- Coat bottom of dish with sauce. Add a layer of potatoes. Add another layer of sauce and then another layer of potatoes. Pour the rest of the sauce to cover the top of the dish.
- Top with fresh chopped lemon thyme and parsley.
- Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake another 30 minutes or until fork tender.
Brown Butter Sage Roasted Radishes
Radishes are so pretty and very easy to grow! These beauties all came from our little backyard garden. I planted the Easter variety – which is just a multi pack. My favorite is when you are surprised with the watermelon radishes. I just think they are so beautiful! There are a lot of things you can do with radishes and typically that involves simply slicing them thin or eating whole. I wanted to share something a little different with you this time.
This is super simple. Quarter your radishes or halve if smaller. Place in an oven safe dish and sprinkle with some salt and pepper.
Melt a stick of butter in a pan. Add sage leaves and simmer until the butter starts to froth and turn a little brown.
Remove the sage leaves and place on a paper towel to absorb extra liquid.
Pour the melted butter on top of the radishes and stir to coat well.
Place your sage leaves on top of the radishes. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Then, uncover and bake for another 30 minutes or until the radishes are fork tender. The last minute, turn your oven to broil to crisp up the sage leaves. Enjoy!
Brown Butter Sage Roasted Radishes
Ingredients
- 1 dozen radishes approx
- 1 stick butter
- 1 bunch sage leaves
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Quarter or halve your radishes. Place in an oven safe dish and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Melt butter in a pan on stove. Add sage leaves and simmer until butter starts to froth and turn brown. Remove sage leaves and place on paper towel to absorb extra liquid.
- Pour butter over radishes and stir together to evenly coat.
- Place sage leaves on top of radishes and cover pan with foil.
- Bake in over at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake another 30 minutes or until radishes are fork tender (check in 15 minutes).
- For the last minute, turn over to broil to crisp up the sage leaves. Enjoy!
Super Simple Pesto
I love Basil. I love pesto. I like it on so many things! And lucky for me, basil grows here in the desert like crazy! It survived our crazy hot summer and is thriving with just slightly lower temps! Not only is it surviving, but I have found at least 6 volunteer plants popping up. Volunteer – meaning – I didn’t plant them there and I don’t care! 🙂 As far as I’m concerned it can grow wherever it wants.
When you have an abundance of something like basil – you can use it in caprese, any kind of pasta, dry it and keep in jars or… make pesto!
It’s so easy to make. Let me warn you though.. if you don’t have a food processor – get one! You can do this in a blender if you chose, but you might not enjoy this process as much.
First things first – gather your basil and remove the stems and any flowers. Wash it and pat dry with paper towels. Drier the better!
In the large bowl, with your basic, large blade on your food processor – add 1 cup parmesan cheese (I used already shredded), about 1.5 cups of pine nuts, 3 garlic cloves and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. I keep lemon juice in baggies in the freezer – we have a lemon tree so every year I juice a bunch, pour into ice cube trays and save some of the wonderful juice for later! You can just squeeze in a lemon though. 🙂 Pulse together on high until everything is mixed together well and chopped finely.
Add your basil to the top of this mixture. Place the lid back on. Turn the processor on high and drizzle olive oil through the small food chute until it reaches the desired consistency. You may have to stop and stir a couple of times. I think it used about a cup, maybe a little less of olive oil. I like mine a little creamy so sometimes at this point, I also add about 1/4 cup of plain, non-fat yogurt. You can always mix some together separately to try first. It should look something like this when finished.
Lastly, I like to throw in a few seasonings – a dash of cayenne pepper and depending on how salty your cheese was, I have some chardonnay smoked sea salt that is pretty good in this. That’s it! Enjoy on flatbread, use as a pasta sauce, bake chicken with pesto on top or.. add to your BLT! Here’s an added tip for a fantastic BLT – use thick cut bacon and cook it on the grill 😉
This is also a great gift – I’ve found so many people love pesto and it’s easy to put in mason jars and give away.
Super Simple Pesto
Ingredients
- 3-4 cups fresh basil
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 cup parmesan cheese
- 1.5 cups pine nuts
- 1/4-1/2 cup non-fat, plain yogurt
- 1 cup olive oil
- dash cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Collect your basil and remove from stems and remove any flowers, clean and dry thoroughly.
- In food processor (with large bowl and large blade) add your parmesan cheese, lemon juice, garlic and pine nuts until you have a fine consistency.
- Add Basil to mixture. With processor on high, slowly mix in olive oil until you reach desired consistency.
- If you like, add in yogurt and cayenne pepper. Enjoy!
Frozen Protein Bars
These are a go to breakfast, snack or pre/post workout treat for me. They are so easy to throw together and you can change them up however you like. I have shared these with most of my guests (I’m bad about breakfast…) and I’ve had dozens of requests for the recipe. I’ve been making these for years and they are slightly different each time. I finally just finished another batch so I think I can now share a “recipe” with everyone.
Start with some overripe bananas. I’m talking black, but not quite moldy.. those are how I like them for recipes like this. I used about 7 large ones in this batch. Next, I add peanut butter. You can use whatever your preference is. I prefer an all natural organic peanut butter and the one we happened to have opened at this time was the Sprouts brand (creamy, unsalted and unsweetened). Picture is deceiving.. I’d say there are about 3 tablespoons of peanut butter in this particular batch. Then, I add in some honey (you could substitute pure maple syrup or agave if you choose). I like to add the local, all natural honey where I can as I suffer from allergies and am told it’s supposed to help! I added probably 3 tablespoons give or take of the honey as well. Mix together well – a spoon should work fine. It should look something like this..
Easy enough so far, right? Next, I throw in some shredded coconut (about 1/4 cup), some sprouted rolled oats (I love the One Degree brand) – probably about a cup or more of the oats. I’m not a big sweets person or chocolate for that matter so I need something tangy and chewy to add. This is where I add my dried cranberries. In this batch I added about 3/4 cup. Often I would throw in some sort of crunchy granola. I didn’t have any on hand so I decided to leave out this time. Last two ingredients I add are chocolate chips (either dark chocolate or semi-sweet) and chocolate protein powder. About 3/4 cup of the chocolate chips and your protein powder really depends on what kind you are using. I prefer the Orgain Organic and use their creamy chocolate fudge for this (there are no added sugars which is important to me). I kept adding until my consistency and taste were ok without overdoing it – my guess is about a cup.
Here is what it looks like after you have everything mixed up. This batch is slightly thin, but will be ok – thicker is ok as well – which it would be if you added granola.
Next – line a muffin tin with some paper cupcake liners. This is important.. it won’t work if you just dump into an empty muffin tin. Also, if you don’t have a muffin tin or don’t have enough you can just use any baking dish that is freezer safe and place your liners in that. See examples below.
Place these in the freezer overnight or until hard. Pop the bars out of the liners into a ziplock bag and store in the freezer until ready to enjoy. If they were a thinner consistency when you put in the freezer keep in mind they will melt faster. These are great in the summer time, after a workout or just anytime in Arizona!
I hope you enjoy these as much we do. Let me know if you come up with any additional ingredients that we need to try!
A few suggestions are: any other dried fruits, including raisins if you don’t like dried cranberries or want sweeter. If you are looking for some extra fiber you could add some wheat bran. Any nuts that you like: almonds, pecans, walnuts.
Frozen Protein Bars
Ingredients
- 7-8 bananas overripe
- 3 tbsp peanut butter
- 3-4 tbsp honey
- 1/4 cup coconut shredded
- 1 cup sprouted, rolled oats or more
- 3/4 cup dried cranberries
- 3/4 cup chocolate chips dark chocolate or semi-sweet
- 1 cup chocolate protein powder
Instructions
- Mix your wet ingredients together first: bananas, peanut butter, honey.
- Add remaining ingredients and stir together well.
- Line a muffin tin (or baking dish) with cupcake liners, fill about 2/3-3/4 full and place in freezer overnight or until frozen solid.
- Pop the bars out of the liners into a freezer bag and store in the freezer until ready to enjoy.
Deviled Eggs
A favorite snack of mine – I love eggs cooked just about any way! My friends and family keep asking for this recipe. I didn’t really think there was a recipe for deviled eggs, but I guess everyone has their own little secret. So – I’ll share my process.
First of all – I only buy large, organic eggs. You have to do your research here on who you are buying from as the industry is not regulated very well and the labeling can be very misleading. Local farms are the best, but there are a few grocery store options I am also good with. Farm fresh eggs are just as good as a tomato picked right off your backyard garden plant! Then – I follow this website’s exact process for boiling my eggs. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel here – this one is absolutely perfect! I follow this to the tee and cook mine right around 10 minutes for my deviled eggs.
They peel super easy every time (use the ice water bath!) and then the yolks pop right out with no problems. Cut your eggs in half and pop the yolks into a medium size bowl. I made about 18 eggs this time. My carrier only fits 2 dozen (halves), but I was taking to a big party so made a few extra.
Next, I add in some mustard. I make a homemade mustard from my banana peppers I grown in my garden. It’s fantastic – a little tangy, slight spice. You can use a store bought mustard. (I will share my recipe soon as I’m waiting to pick enough banana peppers currently). I would look for a tangy maybe honey mustard – should be kind of dark like this:
Next, add in some mayo. Again, I much prefer to use homemade and it’s so easy to make: avocado oil, 1 whole egg, squeeze of lemon juice, mustard powder, pinch of salt. It’s creamier than the store bought and tastes way better. If you are in a rush it’s totally fine to use one from the store. I like the Primal Kitchen avocado oil mayo (it’s sold on Amazon or lots of other places including Target). For my 18 eggs I used about 1/2-2/3 cup of both the mustard and mayo – it’s all about preference and texture. Just add a little of each and you can continue to add more until it’s perfect for you. I also pour in a little apple cider vinegar or if I have pickled red onions in the fridge I’ll use a little of that juice – just about a tablespoon.
Next comes my secret ingredient! I love this stuff! We purchased this for the first time at the Old Town Scottsdale farmers market, but don’t worry – you can buy it online! Saucy lips have great sauces that you can use to marinade meats, use as dressings, or put in things like deviled eggs! The Zesty cilantro is what I use for this one. I use quite a bit as I want the flavor to show about the mayo and mustard. Just mix in about a 1/4 cup and then keep adding to your preference. Here is what my final mix looks like..
I try my best to get the eggs as smooth as possible so the mix is easier to “pipe” into your egg whites. I do not have any fancy piping tips as – I do NOT bake 🙂 So, I dump this into a zip lock bag and cut the corner off and squeeze. If you have larger chunks of egg you will just have to cut a bigger hole into your baggie.
In case you’ve never done this before.. here is what I’m talking about. Just cut that little corner and start piping! That’s it! If you want to make them look pretty for serving you could sprinkle on some paprika or some diced chives on top. Or some micro-cilantro if you are using the saucy lips already. There are so many different ways you can dress up your eggs! I didn’t this time as they were being transported in my little carry case and I was just keeping it easy. Enjoy!
Easy Deviled Eggs
Ingredients
- 18 Eggs large, organic
- 2/3 cup Mustard tangy, honey mustard
- 2/3 cup Mayo avocado oil
- 1 tbsp Vinegar apple cider
- 3/4 cup Saucy Lips Zesty Cilantro Sauce less sauce to taste..
Instructions
- Cook your eggs according to website instructions – 10 minutes. Put in ice water bath for 5+ minutes. Peel.
- Cut your eggs in half and dump your yolks in a medium size bowl.
- Add your mustard, mayo, vinegar and sauce to taste and texture prefered. Try to get your mixture as creamy as possible, removing any large chunks of egg.
- Dump your mixture into a zip lock bag and pipe into your egg whites.
- Top with anything you desire – or a combination – paprika, chives, cilantro.