Tag Archives: food

Summer Veggie Pasta

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Summer Veggie Pasta

HI 🙂

So I know that I have created something similar to this before but I saw summer squash and zucchini on sale and saw asparagus next to it and just had this idea pop in my head:

I mean tell the truth- how good does that look?!?!?! SO good, I know.

So I totally made this up. I am a very experimental and “eye-ball it” chef, I realize that a lot of people really need a recipe to follow in order to feel comfortable so I will try my best.

INGREDIENTS

Olive Oil

1 Fresh Tomato (Chopped)

1 Small Onion(Cut into small strips)

1 clove of Garlic(Minced)

1/2 Zucchini (Halved and Sliced)

1/2 Summer Squash(Halved and Sliced)

8-10 Pieces of Asparagus(Cut into 1-2 inch pieces)

Pasta of your choice

DIRECTIONS

1) Heat water in pot and cook your pasta once it starts to boil

2) Heat some olive oil in a sauté pan, add Garlic and cook until softened through. Add your Onion slices and cook until softened. Next add the Asparagus pieces. Cook for about 3-4 minutes and add the squash and zucchini. Lastly when everything is mostly cooked to your liking add the tomatoes(basically just to heat them through).

3) Serve over the pasta of your choice and Bon Appetite!

Seriously you guys, Jake was honestly in LOVE with this meal. Couldn’t stop saying how good it was. It makes me feel so good to cook food that he loves. I look forward to the moments of praise for my favorite thing I do; create culinary masterpieces..haha joke, simply cooking.

Hope you enjoy! As always, thanks for reading!

xoxo

-G

Bravo Potatoes

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DID I DIE?!?!?! no. It just seems like that because I haven’t posted in almost a month! what the?!?!?! I don’t even know why, really. But I do have some posts to catch up.

Bravo potatoes is a traditional Spanish Tapas Dish. It is seriously one of my favorite things. My mom made these for my family for a long time, not sure where she learned it but I know this will become a family staple once you try it too!

 Bravo Potatoes

Ingredients

2 TBS of olive oil

  1.1/2 lbs russet potatoes, peeled & cut into 1/2″ cubes (about 4 c)

  1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
4-5 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
10 dashes Tabasco
Salt to taste

  Drizzle of lemon juice
Chopped fresh Cilantro
Coarse Sea Salt

Directions

  In a large nonstick skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat
until it shimmers.  

Fry cubed potatoes in a single layer until browned and partially
cooked through, about 10 min. Turn once or twice with a spatula,
but don’t stir too often-they’ll brown better if left alone.

Pulse tomatoes, garlic and seasoning in food processor just to
break up tomatoes (do not puree). After potatoes have browned,
add tomato mixture and stir to coat. Reduce heat to medium and
cook 5-8 min., or until potatoes are cooked through; stir often to
prevent scorching. Transfer potatoes to a platter.

 Garnish; with lemon juice, chopped cilantro and coarse
sea salt. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Thanks for reading as always!

xoxo

-G

Black Bean Cilantro Hummus

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BLACK BEAN HUMMUS

I love love love love love hummus. So recently I’ve been trying to experiment with different flavors of hummus as opposed to the usual (but delicious) plain hummus.

This time I tried a Black Bean hummus with cilantro. It is really good! Jake hates hummus in general so this is my own treat for myself. I bring it to work with pita or veggies and it’s a super delicious and easy to assemble lunch! ENJOY

Mix the following in a food processor until smooth:

  • 2 tablespoons of tahini (which is sesame seed paste(really more like a nut butter made from the seeds) but you can find it lots of places)
  • 2 tablespoons of water
  • 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lime juice
  • 1 table spoon of olive oil
  • 3/4 teaspoon of Cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon of salt
  • 1 can (15 oz) black beans (rinsed)
  • 1/2 a small Jalapeño pepper (or whatever spicy pepper of your choice)
  • 1/2 cup of cilantro (Rinsed and stems picked out)
  • 1 clove of garlic

Serve with pita or crackers or veggies or eat spoonfuls of it by itself! 🙂

xoxo

-G

Stuffed Green Peppers

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My first food post! ♥

I made stuffed green peppers. The recipe I adapted it from was for 8-10 peppers, and as it is just me and Jake I cut it in half for 4-5 so we could each have one and then another one for leftovers sometime. Well there was actually way too much stuffing for just 4 peppers…this recipe is definitely enough for about 6 peppers. (depending slightly on pepper size obviously).

Here is what ingredients you will need:

– Peppers(*helpful tip is to make sure that they are stable enough on the bottom to ‘sit up’ on their own so you don’t have spilling peppers! 🙂

– Small/medium onion

– Can of DICED tomatoes(yes the picture is of stewed tomatoes, thats what the recipe called for, but I had to spend time cutting them into smaller pieces and so next time I’ll be using diced)

– 1 can of corn

– 1 pound of ground beef

– 1 cup of rice

-Chili powder, and I threw in some chipotle powder too

– Ketchup

– Cheese to sprinkle on top

What do do:

  • Cook your rice and set aside.  * Look at the bottom of this post for a rice cooking tutorial 🙂
  • Cut the tops off of your peppers and clean. Set aside
  • Chop your onion and the tops of the peppers into a small dice
  • Bring a large pot of water to a boil and boil the peppers for 3-4 minutes until they softened a little bit (as pictured)

  • Take them out and run under cold water for a second or two and then set aside.
  • Turn on oven to 350 degrees
  • Start browning beef, once brown add the onions and pepper pieces until soft
  • Add corn, tomatoes, 1 -2 tsps of chili powder/ chipotle powder or whatever seasoning you choose.
  • Add ketchup, about 5 tablespoons-more or less- just to get a ‘stewier’ consistency
  • Mix in your rice and stir entire mixture together
Here is what my pepper stuffing looked like after I was done:

  • Pack each pepper tightly with the stuffing and place in a tin foil lined baking dish
  • Sprinkle the tops with cheese
  • Bake for 10-15 minutes (I finished with a broil to get a pretty brown color 🙂 )
Here is the finished product:

VOILA! I served this with some biscuits I had left over from another recipe- but would be good with a salad too!
Hope you enjoy &  please share with me if you adapt and experiment with this and come up with your own tasty creations!
xoxo
-G
Rice tutorial:
White rice is a 2:1 ratio and brown rice is 1.5:1, so two cups of water for every one cup of white rice and 1.5 cups of water for every cup of brown rice. 
-I always rinse my rice before I cook it- particularly for white rice. Usually 5-10 rinses or until the water is no longer cloudy. 
-Combine the correct amounts of rice and water in a saucepan(you can add a little bit of oil (canola,veggie,olive or whatever you choose)) bring to a boil with the lid OFF.
-A soon as the water starts to boil, turn the burner to low and place the lid on the pot
-Simmer the rice for 17-20 minutes and ta-da! super simple. 
*for brown rice after the 20 minutes is up I remove the pot from the burner but continue to let the rice sit for another 15 minutes before I serve- not sure why but it always turns out better when I do 🙂 
easy peasy!