KIick-It-Up-A-Notch Peas and Carrots

Question:  When I say "peas and carrots" what's the first thing that comes to mind?

Answer: FORREST GUMP!

Well, at least, that's what comes to mind for me.  Whenever I hear the phrase "peas and carrots" this scene from the movie automatically pops up:

Man, that's a great movie.  As an interesting sidenote, for those of you that don't know, my brother's name is actually Forrest (although, he was named after Nathan Bedford Forrest not Forrest Gump).

Anywho, today's post is NOT about the movie, but rather about the food combination itself.  At some point or another, I think that everyone has eaten the traditional peas and carrots combination.  But, if my experience is any indicator, peas and carrots are usually mushy (due to canned peas), bland (due to a lack of seasoning), and forgettable (generally "bleh" on the YUMM-O scale).

Well today that all changes! 

My recipe for peas and carrots is crisp (due to frozen peas), flavorful (due to the addition of roasting and garlic powder), and memorable (a solid 8-9 on the YUMM-O scale)...all the things a good vegetable side dish should be!

Kick-It-Up-A-Notch Peas and Carrots
Serves 4

1 lb. carrots, peeled and sliced
1/2T EVOO
1 bag frozen peas
1/2T Smart Balance (or butter)
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2tsp garlic powder

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Toss with sliced carrots with EVOO and salt and pepper.
• Place the carrots on a baking sheet coated with non-stick spray.
• Roast for 20-25 minutes, tossing every 10 minutes until carrots are tender and beginning to brown around the edges.
• While the carrots are roasting, place peas in a medium saucepan and cover with water.  Boil 3 minutes, until tender.
• Drain, toss with Smart Balance, and season with salt and pepper.
• Once the carrots are roasted, add them to the peas and toss to incorporate.
• Season with garlic powder and, if necessary, additional salt and pepper.
• Serve warm.

This dish pairs perfectly with a side of brown rice/quinoa/millet and your protein of choice!

Question of the Day:

Have you ever put a spin on a classic recipe?  If so, I would love hearing about your creativity in the kitchen in the "Comment" section below!

Blessings,
Ally and Bo

Vegetable Stuffed Bell Peppers

Yesterday's dinner was so delicious that I can't wait to share it with you!  Like, seriously, I can't wait to share it with you...so I don't even want to waste time by typing too much of an introduction.

Instead, I'll just let this photo speak for itself!

From my experience, it seems like bell peppers are usually stuffed with some combination of rice, meat, and/or beans.  Rarely have I seen a recipe that stuffs them with the bounty of summer produce.  Well, wait no longer, because that recipe is here!  I decided to stuff my big, beautiful, bell peppers with summer's best: kale, carrots; and of course, a little cheese.  The result was spectacularly light, flavorful, and a perfect way to round out your dinner plate!

Vegetable Stuffed Bell Peppers
Serves 2

1 green bell pepper, cut in half with core and seeds removed
1 large stem of kale, torn into bite-size pieces
1 medium carrot, shredded
2 garlic cloves, minced
2oz. shredded mozzarella (or Daiya cheese), divided in half
1T nutritional yeast
1/2T lemonjuice
large pinch of salt
small pinch of pepper

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
• Mix the kale, carrot, garlic, half of the mozzarella, yeast, lemonjuice, salt, and pepper together in a small mixing bowl.
• Spoon the vegetable mixture into the bell pepper halves, and pack tightly.
• Bake for 30 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and place the remaining 1oz. of mozzarella on top of the bell peppers (1/2oz. over each pepper).
• Broil on high for 5 minutes.
• Cool for 3-5 minutes.
• For a balanced dinner, serve alongside your protein and carbohydrate of choice.

As you can see in all of these pictures, I served our stuffed beauties alongside "Rosemary and Thyme Roasted New Potatoes" and ground turkey (for Bo, of course...I had tofu!).  To make the potatoes, simply:

• quarter 8-10 small new potatoes;
• toss them in 1-2T EVOO, 1tsp dried rosemary, and 1/2 tsp thyme;
• roast at 400 degrees for 30 minutes; and
• WA-LA(!) you're done!

Truth be told, I hesitate to even call that a recipe because it is SO. simple.  Call it what you will; but give it a try.  Those new potatoes were exceptionally good...especially alongside the veggie-rific stuffed bell peppers!

I'm loving the natural light that was flooding in through our breakfast nook window!  Even without my cameras flash, I feel like I was able to capture the texture and color of the peppers.  It takes some planning to cook - and photograph - my recipes while the sun is still high in the sky (believe it or not, I cooked this dinner at 2:00 in the afternoon just so that I could get some good pictures), but I think it is worth it!

Next up - I just discovered a traditional Middle Eastern snack that I have been loving for breakfast (and snacks!) lately.  It's simple, easy, delicious, and uses ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry.  Need to liven up your snack routine?  Well check back tomorrow for this unique new menu item!

Question of the Day:


What is your favorite "stuffed" food?!  It can be anything from cannoli to manicotti to an omelet; but whatever it is, tell me all about it in the "Comment" section below!

Blessings,
Ally and Bo

Zucchini and Mushroom Flatbread with Homemade Tomato Dipping Sauce

Like many people, but perhaps more than most, I am a creature of habit.  

For example:

Since all of my yoga classes are taught either in the morning or in the late evening, I am almost always home between the hours of noon-5:00PM.  As a result, from 3:00-4:00PM I watch back-to-back episodes of Giada at Home, and from 4:00-5:00PM I watch back-to-back episodes of the Barefoot Contessa, Back to Basics.  As you might expect, I frequently get ideas for new recipes from their shows.  Just the other day Giada made this Zucchini and Olive Flatbread.  Since we had been craving Italian cuisine - especially pizza - for a few days, I thought that this recipe might just fit the bill...

The problem was, although I find them delicious, Bo really dislikes olives.  Therefore, I couldn't simply remake Giada's recipe.  No, instead, I would need to rework it to suite our tastes (not to mention what we had on hand in the refrigerator/pantry).

After gathering up some mushrooms that we bought at the farmer's market this past weekend, as well as a few additional spices and concocting a homemade tomato dipping sauce, I knew that I was onto something good!

With its thin crust and herb-infused flavor, this flatbread is one of the many perfect ways to enjoy summer's most beautiful vegetables.  As a suggestion, don't smother the delicate flavors of the zucchini and mushrooms by drowning them in cheese.  Instead, sprinkle on just enough to complement the freshness of both the vegetables and the herbs.  You will leave the dinner table satisfied - but not stuffed - with ample room for dessert! ;)

Zucchini and Mushroom Flatbread
Serves 4-6

All-purpose flour for dusting
1 lb. homemade pizza dough (or pre-made from your grocery store or local pizzeria)
2 T EVOO, divided
3 small zucchini, sliced into half-moons
7 portabellini mushrooms, chopped
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp garlic powder
4 oz. shredded organic mozzarella cheese (or cheese substitute)
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
• On a floured surface, roll out the pizza dough into a thin, large rectangular shape.
• Transfer the dough onto a greased baking sheet.
• Prick the dough with a fork, and drizzle 1T of EVOO on top.
• Arrange the zucchini and mushrooms on the flatbread.
• Drizzle the other 1T of EVOO on top of the vegetables.
• Bake for 18-20 minutes.
• Pull the flatbread out of the oven.  
• Sprinkle the oregano, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and cheese on top.
• Return to the oven to bake for an additional 5-7 minutes.
• Allow the flatbread to cool for 5 minutes.
• Serve alongside Homemade Tomato Dipping Sauce (recipe below).

No surprise here, but I love a little tomato something-or-other with my Italian cuisine.  As good as the Zucchini and Mushroom Flatbread was, it seemed to be calling out for some tomato-based pairing.  Since I didn't have any canned pasta sauce on hand, I decided to use what I did have to whip up something homemade.  And whaddya know but my tomato sauce experimentation turned out better than any canned sauce I have had in a looong while!

Homemade Tomato Dipping Sauce
Serves 4

1 can diced tomatoes
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions:

• Pour the diced tomatoes into a small saucepan warmed over medium high heat.
• Immediately add the minced garlic cloves.
• Once the mixture begins to boil, reduce heat to low and use a potato masher to crush the tomatoes and garlic.
• Add the garlic powder, oregano, basil, and cayenne pepper.
• Cook for an additional 5-10 minutes until the mixture begins to thicken.
• Serve with homemade bread sticks, flatbread, or on your favorite pasta!

Question of the Day:


Do you usually follow recipes "by the book," or do you experiment and tweak them as you go along?!

Blessings,
Ally and Bo

Panzanella Salad

Before the age of 25, I had never even heard of Panzanella salad.  The salads I grew up with were your average garden variety.  Don't get me wrong, they were always delicious, but in general they consisted of lettuce, carrots, celery, and tomatoes topped with whatever bottled dressing was currently stocking our refrigerator door.  These days I like to change it up a little (okay, a LOT) when it comes to my salad repertoire.  So last night, when I saw a half-eaten loaf of Seeduction Bread from Whole Foods staring at me, I realized that I needed to come up with something that would use up several slices of this soon-to-be-stale bread.  A number of things ran through my head:

• bread pudding - no...that's too sweet;
• savory bread pudding - eh...still too much work; and
• french toast - nah...too breakfastey AND too sweet.

And then it hit me!  

I remembered a time, about three years ago, when I was staying with a dear friend for a week or two.  This friend is a foodie, like me, and one summer evening she whipped together this amazing bread and vegetable salad and called it Panzanella.  It was d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s.!  Thinking back on it, I honestly can't believe that I have waited so long to recreate the dish in my own kitchen.

Well, wait no longer!

Panzanella is here!

Specifically, Panzanella is a Florentine salad of bread and tomatoes popular in the summer.  It includes chunks of soaked stale bread and tomatoes, sometimes also onions and basil, dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  It is also popular in other parts of central Italy.

Panzanella salad is an Italian salad that was probably an invention of necessity.  Italian cooks waste nothing, and this was a way to utilize stale bread and vegetables from the garden.  The record of Panzanella goes back centuries.  In the 1500's, a poem by the famous artist, Bronzino, described the salad.  Of course, the tomato was quite a few years from being introduced into the Italian kitchen.  Therefore, until the 20th century, Panzanella was based on onions.  

[Today, Panzanella] always includes bread and tomatoes plus vegetables from the garden.  Vegetables can include cucumbers and onions.  Other ingredients - lettuce, olives, mozarella, white wine, capers, anchovies, celery, carrots, red wine, tuna, parsley, boiled eggs, mint, bell peppers, lemon juice, and garlic - are sometimes used, but Florentine traditionalists disapprove of them.  (Source 1 and Source 2)

Here is my version of the classic Italian dish, using many of the vegetables that we found at the Riverside Arts Market this past Saturday!

Panzanella Salad
Serves 4

4 pieces stale bread (or bread left out overnight), cubed
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 large tomatoes, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
2-3 outer leaves of romaine lettuce, chopped
1 tsp dried parsley
1T dried basil
zest of 1 lemon
6T EVOO
1-2T balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Drizzle the cubed bread with 1T EVOO.
• Bake the bread cubes for 15-20 minutes, tossing every 7-8 minutes, until crispy and lightly browned.
• Meanwhile, cook the minced garlic in 1 tsp EVOO until fragrant.
• Add the tomatoes, onion, cucumber, romaine, parsley, basil, and lemon zest to a large salad bowl.
• Add the cooked garlic.
• Drizzle in the EVOO and balsamic vinegar, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Toss to incorporate.
• Add in the baked bread cubes; and toss.
• Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes to allow the flavors to mingle.
• Serve, chilled, alongside your protein of choice.

Next time - another book review (and this time the book is neither utopian/dystopian in theme nor Young Adult in genre).  In fact, it's historical fiction, and I can't wait to tell you all about it!

Question of the Day:


Have you ever had a Panzanella salad before?  If so, what did you think? If not, have you ever made your own croutons?!

Blessings,
Ally and Bo