Breakfast: Strawberry Melon Salad

Lunch: Cuban Lentil Soup

Snack: Baked Sweet Potato Chips

Dinner: Buttermilk Ranch Chicken Breast

Dessert: Peanut Butter Cookies

Happy Wednesday my fellow food lovers!  Today’s feature recipe is soup!  I love soup and I enjoy soup all year round.  Here is a yummy Cuban Lentil Soup for your enjoyment!

Cuban Lentil Soup, also known as sopa de lentejas, is delicious!  One thing I really love is having a few spoonfuls and then adding lime to the soup.  It completely changes the flavor.  Being from the Caribbean, I’m used to it being hot all the time, so soup is something we enjoy year round.  I hope you like it as much as I do.

Preparation

1. Over low heat, pour the water and add the lentils in a large sauce pan.
2. Bring to a boil
3. Reduce heat to low
4. Cover and simmer for 15 mins.
5. Add vinegar, onion, garlic, beef bouillon, celery, tomatoes, potato, bay leaf, cumin, basil and oregano.
6. Stir ingredients well
7. Bring to a boil
8. Reduce the heat to medium
9. Cover and simmer for 45 mins.
10. Remove the bay leaf and discard.
11. Add salt and pepper and wine and stir well.
12. Cook an additional 5 mins.
13. The soup should be somewhat thick and not very watery, and the potatoes tender.
14. To thicken, let stand for several mins.
15. Serve on soup bowls and enjoy!

I typically enjoy the soup with a side of rice, but it’s hearty enough to enjoy by itself!

Potato and Bacon Omelet(te)

Happy Sunday everyone!  As we wind down from the weekend and get ready for yet another lovely week I am happy to present to you the Sunday-funday menu!

Here is today’s menu

Breakfast: Potato and Bacon Omelet

Lunch: Egg Salad Sandwich

Snack: Fruit salad

Dinner: Easy Honey Ham

Dessert: Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

Potato and Bacon Omelet

potato bacon omelet

Ingredients

• 3 bacon strips, diced
• 2 cups diced peeled potatoes
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions

1. In a 9-in. nonstick skillet, cook bacon until crisp.
2. Drain, reserving drippings.
3. Set bacon aside.
4. Cook potatoes and onion in drippings until tender, stirring occasionally.
5. Add eggs, salt and pepper; mix gently.
6. Cover and cook over medium heat until eggs, salt and pepper; mix gently.
7. Cover and cook over medium heat until eggs are completely set.
8. Sprinkle with cheese.
9. Remove from the heat; cover and let stand until cheese is melted.
10. Sprinkle with bacon.
11. Carefully run a knife around edge of skillet to loosen.
12. Transfer to a serving plate.

potato bacon omelet

And Voila!  There you have a lovely Sunday meal!  I hope you and your loved ones enjoy it.  Bon Appétit!

grilled fish

Ingredients

Serve with fresh veggies, a baked potato, on top of buttered pasta or with a side of white or yellow rice.  It’ll be delicious with any side!

You can also enjoy the leftovers  on a sandwich or in a salad the next day.  Enjoy!

October ’10 – Week 2 – Friday Dinner/Entree

This recipe is my own, based off of a meal an old friend used to tell me about but never got around to cooking for me. My version is elegant, worthy of an anniversary dinner, and reminiscent of meals I ate during my summer in Germany. This meal is also very versatile. It could be rendered into a soup, the potatoes could be removed and mashed with the cream, butter and herbs in the pan, or it could be served exactly as it is, straight out of the oven.

Ingredients:

4 Salmon Fillets
1 lb Fingerling Potatoes
1 lb Asparagus Spears, trimmed
Fresh Dill
1 Pint Half & Half
1 Stick of Butter
Zest of 1 Lemon
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

In the bottom of a baking dish, arrange the asparagus spears into a mat for the salmon to sit on. Arrange salmon on top, and potatoes off to either side. Pour half and half into the bottom of the dish, and cut the butter into bits and scatter them throughout. Roughly chop the dill and sprinkle it over the top, along with the lemon zest, salt and pepper.

Tent with foil and bake for 60 minutes, or until fish is tender and flaky and potatoes are cooked through.

October ’10 – Week 2 – Thursday Dinner/Entree

I discovered the secret to a killer cheesy shepherd’s pie, and the answer might surprise you. Save time and calories by using boxed potatoes au gratin instead of using a layer of mashed potatoes. The cheesy sauce cooks down into the meat and veggies, completely changing your perceptions of what a shepherd’s pie is supposed to be.

Ingredients:

1 Package Potatoes Au Gratin
Water
Milk
Olive Oil
1 lb Ground Beef
1 Onion, diced
1 Clove Garlic, minced
Frozen Vegetables of choice (I usually use peas.)
Worchestershire Sauce
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°.

Add a touch of olive oil to a med-large skillet and heat to med-high. Cook onions and garlic until translucent and tender. Remove from pan and set aside.

Cook beef in the same skillet until browned WELL. Drain off any fat before reincorporating the onion mixture and adding your veggies, worchestershire sauce, salt and pepper to taste.

Add contents of the skillet to a casserole dish. Prepare “sauce” for potatoes au gratin (cheese packet, water and milk,) omitting the butter component. Arrange potato slices across the top of the beef mixture in the casserole dish, then pour the cheese sauce overtop. Sauce will thicken and potatoes will cook as the casserole bakes.

Bake for 60 minutes, or until the top has browned and potatoes are cooked through.

October ’10 – Week 1 – Sunday Dinner/Entree

What’s more Sunday dinner than a roasted chicken with potatoes? For me, it’s important to slow down and gather around the table, so meals that allow for that are something I’m grateful for. I’m desperately in love with French cuisine, so this chicken in particular calls for Fleur de Sel and mushrooms, but feel free to switch it up for whichever flavor profile you like the best. For Italian, use Italian seasoning and white wine, for Indian, use garam masala and ginger, for Mexican, use lime and cilantro, etc! Anything goes. (*Orange text highlights easy steps that kids can do.)

Ingredients:

1 Roasting Chicken, about 4 lbs
1 Stick Butter, softened
1 T Fleur de Sel
1 C Mushrooms, finely diced
1 lb Fingerling or any small Potatoes
Fresh Rosemary, chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°.  Wash chicken inside and out, and pat dry.

In a small bowl, combine butter, Fleur de Sel, and mushrooms. Rub chicken all over with butter mixture, getting under the skin when possible.

Cut potatoes in half and sprinkle with salt and rosemary. Line the bottom of a roasting pan with them, and place chicken on top. Roast in the oven for 90-105 minutes, or until  a meat thermometer reads 165°. Baste as needed, tent with foil if chicken darkens or dries out.

Cut chicken into parts before serving, with potatoes on the side, dressed in the mushrooms, butter and rosemary collected in the bottom of the pan.

September ’10 – Week 4 – Tuesday Lunch

When most Americans hear the word ‘tortilla’ they typically think immediately of the thin, flour-and-lard-based flatbread used in Mexican cuisine. But in Spain, a tortilla is something altogether different. For American children, this recipe is a bit like homefries and scrambled eggs layered together, so don’t be shy to offer it to the picky kids with ketchup- it doesn’t taste half bad! This recipe calls for the use of an ovenproof skillet, such as cast iron or stainless steel, so that the tortilla can easily be moved to the oven for browning, however, if you don’t have one, you can easily flip the tortilla in the pan by turning it out onto a plate and then gently sliding it back into the pan upside down.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 C Olive Oil
1 3/4 lb Low-Starch Potatoes, (such as Yukon Gold) peeled, sliced thin and salted
2 Onions, diced
5 cloves Garlic, minced
6 Eggs
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Fry the potatoes, turning gently occasionally. Try not to break them up too much. When the potatoes are tender, about 10-12 minutes, transfer them from the oil onto paper towels to drain.

Put onions and garlic into pan next, cooking until garlic is golden and onions are translucent, adjusting heat if necessary. Once they have finished cooking, transfer them alongside the potatoes so that they too may drain.

Drain remaining oil from the pan and wipe out with a paper towel.

In a bowl, whisk together eggs, salt and pepper to taste. Gently add in potatoes, onions and garlic, mixing gently to combine.

Re-heat skillet to med-high heat, adding in a small amount of fresh oil. Let heat before pouring in egg and potato mixture. Let cook until crisp around the edges, then turn heat down to med-low, allowing tortilla to cook until almost set at the center, 8-10 minutes.

If your skillet is oven-proof, place it under a low broiler until tortilla is set at the center and the top is golden brown and crisp. If not, turn tortilla out onto a plate by first loosening the edges with a knife, then covering the skillet with the plate and flipping everything over at once. Gently lift skillet off the plate, then slide tortilla off the plate back into the skillet to finish cooking.

Let cool before serving.

September ’10 – Week 3 – Friday Dinner/Entree

Cocido is a traditional chickpea stew from Spain. There’s a little something for everyone in this dish, and even the babies in the family can have a nourishing taste of the carrots and chickpeas mashed in some of the beautiful golden broth. For the sake of American families on the go, this recipe takes full advantage of the slow cooker, and omits a few of the much harder to find traditional ingredients, such as black pudding and pig’s trotters.

Ingredients:

9 oz Dried Chickpeas, soaked overnight
1 lb Brisket, in one piece
9 oz  Bacon, in one piece (ask butcher)
1/2 Chicken
1 Whole Garlic Bulb
2 Bay Leaves
Several Black Peppercorns, crushed
1 small Onion, studded with 2 Cloves
1 1/2 lb Cabbage, quartered
2 Carrots, cut into large pieces
2 Leeks
1 lb Small Potatoes, peeled
2 Chorizo Sausages

Directions:

Drain and rinse chick peas. Put everything in the slow cooker, arranged neatly, and cover to the top with water. Cook on high 6-8 hours. Before serving, salt and pepper to taste.

Serve on separate platters (or courses, per tradition,) meats should be sliced and served with the chickpeas, sausages (again sliced) and vegetables together, and the broth alone, sometimes with noodles.

September ’10 – Week 2 – Sunday Dinner/Entree

This stew is elegant enough for the adults as is, and makes a gorgeous Sunday dinner, but as for the picky kids in your house? We’ve got you covered. Serve this stew up on a “volcano” made of molded white rice and tell them it’s not stew- it’s lava! This recipe is another one that’s good for busy weekends, since it’s done in the slow cooker, freeing you up to enjoy your day.

Ingredients:
2  lbs chuck beef, cubed
1 bottle dry red wine
3 garlic cloves, crushed
3 bay leaves
2 C AP flour
Olive oil
2 onions, cubed
1 lb carrots, peeled and cut in chunks
1/2 lb mushrooms
1 lb small potatoes, halved or quartered
1 T garlic, minced
Fresh thyme
Fresh rosemary
2 C stock or broth
1/2 C chopped sun-dried tomatoes
2 T Worcestershire sauce
1 package frozen peas
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

The night before, place cubed beef in a bowl with wine, bay leaves, and crushed garlic. Allow to marinate, refrigerated, overnight.

The next day, combine flour, salt and pepper in a bowl. Remove beef from marinade with a slotted spoon, reserving marinade aside. Dredge the beef in the flour mixture and set aside. Heat olive oil on med-high in a heavy skillet and cook beef in batches until all beef is thoroughly browned on the outside.

Into a slow cooker, place beef, onions, carrots, potatoes, and mushrooms. Add 2 1/2 C of the reserved marinade back into the hot skillet and deglaze. Place deglazing liquid into the slow cooker, along with minced garlic, thyme, rosemary, sun-dried tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.

Allow to cook on high for 4-6 hours, or until beef is perfectly tender and vegetables are cooked through. Stir in frozen peas shortly before serving, allowing to heat through.

White Rice Volcanoes:

Cook 1 C white rice according to package directions (should make about 2 C cooked.) Allow to cool most of the way, but keep moist. Using your hands, form rice into conical ‘volcano’ shapes on the plate. Create a crater using your fingers, then pour the stew over the top.

September ’10 – Week 1 – Saturday Dinner/Entree

Whenever I think about roasted fish, I always think about learning about Native American tribes in school, specifically those living on the coastline, smoking huge racks of fish and storing them for the winter. Learning about food always made me want to cook food, and I have to admit, no matter how much I read or learn about fish, cooking it still intimidates me. Luckily, that’s why you have your grocer’s fishmonger. This recipe calls for trout fillet, and your resident seafood expert will be happy to take care of that for you. Once the fish is filleted, all the hard work is done!

Ingredients:

4 trout (each a pound or less, cleaned and filleted)
1 1/2 lb potatoes, peeled and sliced thin (as if for a gratin)
2 T butter, cut into small pieces
Fresh rosemary sprigs
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Salt and white pepper, to taste
extra virgin olive oil

Directions: