Dark Chocolate Cherry Blondies

Up before 6:00am on a Saturday morning means prime time for some pre-Rosh Hashanah baking.  This morning, Dark Chocolate Cherry Blondies.  Packed up and into the freezer for a couple weeks, they look and smell delicious!

Dark Chocolate Cherry Blondies

What You Need:

Dark Chocolate Cherry Blondies

• 2 3/4 c flour
• 4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 sticks butter, room temperature
• 2/3 c sugar
• 1 c packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1 cup dried cherries

How You Do It:

1. Preheat oven to 350*.
2. Mix flour, baking soda, and salt in small bowl.
3. In large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and both sugars until smooth.  Add in eggs and vanilla and beat again until combined.  Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture and slowly beat until combined.  Stir in chocolate chips and cherries.
4. Press mixture into prepared glass baking dish.  Bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting..

Dark Chocolate Cherry Blondies recipe adapted from Martha Stewart September 2012 Everyday Food Magazine.

Teriyaki Turkey Lettuce Wraps

I don't love cooked carrots.  Just ask my mother - I would and still (almost always) pick out the cooked carrots.  However, when I came across this healthy, five-ingredient recipe for lettuce wraps jam-packed with carrots, I thought I'd give them another try.

Let me be honest... there were a lot of carrots in this recipe.  A lot, a lot.  Now, I will also be honest and tell you I didn't hate them.  I did, however, pick some out.  There were just too many.  Next time, less carrots.

I also only had romaine lettuce in the house.  Not so easy to hold the meat, so next time, boring ol' iceberg will have to do.

I'm not ready to give on on this one quite yet.  It was super easy, super inexpensive (note I did not call it "cheap", mom!), and really quite healthy.  The way you see it below is how I would make it next time:

Teriyaki Turkey Lettuce Wraps

Teriyaki Turkey Lettuce Wraps

What You Need:

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1/2 large onion, diced
• 5 oz (1/2 bag) shredded carrots
• 1/3 c teriyaki sauce
• Iceberg lettuce

How You Do It:

1. Heat a large skillet with 1 tablespoon oil.  Add ground turkey and onion, breaking up and cooking until turkey is no longer pink, about 5 minutes.
2. Add 1/4 c water and carrots, cover and cook 5 minutes or until carrots are soft.
3. Add teriyaki sauce and heat another 5 minutes.
4. Serve in lettuce cups.

Teriyaki Turkey Lettuce Wraps recipe adapted from EveryDay with Rachael Ray.

Bistro Chicken

I always love a meal you can cook in one pot.  This one does just that.  (Well, I did cook off the bacon in a separate pan, but that was minor and just one small step so I'm not counting it!)  Only two slices of [turkey] bacon really gave off a smokey flavor that was a little unexpected bit of glory in this otherwise tomato, mushroom, onion, and chicken dish.  My sauce was a little thin, so towards the end, before I topped the chicken with the bacon and cheese, I added a little cornstarch-water mixture to help thicken the sauce.

A green salad or some steamed broccoli or asparagus would have made a good side dish and even some pasta to complete the meal, but for us, tonight it was just the chicken.

Bistro Chicken

Bistro Chicken

What You Need:

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 3 cups sliced mushrooms
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 can (14.5 oz) no-salt-added stewed tomatoes, undrained
• 1/4 fat-free zesty italian dressing
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• 4 chicken breasts
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 slices turkey bacon

How You Do It:

1. Heat oil in large skillet, add mushrooms and onion and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Stir in tomatoes, dressing, and tomato paste.
3. Add chicken, cover, and simmer on medium-low heat 10 minutes.  Flip, and cook additional 10 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 165*.
4. Meanwhile, chop bacon and cook until done.  Set aside on paper towel to soak up the fat.
5. Once the chicken is cooked through, top with bacon, then shredded cheese.  Cook, uncovered, until melted, additional 5 minutes.

Bistro Chicken recipe adapted from Kraft Foods.

Garlic Turkey-Broccoli Stir-Fry

Here's a make-your-own-take-out recipe for the books.  While everyone loves Chinese food, it doesn't always come with the healthiest of ingredients and/or preparations.  This recipe, however, is not only delicious, but easy to make and quite healthy.  Lean turkey tenderloin accompanied by fresh veggies and a light sauce, make for a balanced and healthy entree.  I served mine with some brown rice.

Garlic Turkey-Broccoli Stir-Fry

Garlic Turkey-Broccoli Stir-Fry

What You Need:

• 2 tsp sesame oil, divided
• 1 (1 lb) turkey tenderloin, cut into thin strips
• 1 cup chicken broth (I used fat-free, reduced sodium)
• 4 large garlic cloves, pressed
• 1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 bell pepper, cut into thin strips (I used orange)
• 2 cups fresh broccoli florets
• 1 (8 oz) can diced water chestnuts, drained
• 2 tbsp soy sauce (I used low sodium)

How You Do It:

1. Combine broth, garlic, cornstarch, and red pepper flakes.  Stir until cornstarch dissolves and set aside.
2. Heat 1 teaspoon sesame oil in large skillet until hot.  Add turkey and stir-fry until cooked through, about 5 minutes.  Remove from pan and set aside.
3. Add remaining teaspoon sesame oil to skillet and add pepper strips and broccoli.  Stir-fry until slightly tender, about 3-4 minutes.
4. Add water chestnuts and stir-fry another 1 minute.
5. Stir broth mixture and add to skillet, along with soy sauce, turkey and remaining juices.
6. Bring to a boil; cook 1-2 minutes or until thickened.

Garlic Turkey-Broccoli Stir-Fry recipe adapted from: MyRecipes.com 

Honey Lime Tilapia

Tonight's fish recipe taught me a new technique.  Marinating the fish overnight, lightly dredging in some seasoned flour, and pan searing.  5 minutes the night before and 10 minutes when we got home from the gym and voila!  Next time I might mix up the citrus and seasonings...

Honey Lime Tilapia

Honey Lime Tilapia

What You Need:

• 2 tilapia filets
• Juice and zest of 1/2 lime
• 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 1/2 tsp honey
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 c flour
• salt and pepper

How You Do It:

1. The night before, put tilapia filets into ziplock bag.  Add lime juice and zest, oil, honey, garlic powder, and salt and pepper.  Mix around to coat and put in refrigerator up to 24 hours.
2. Mix flour and salt and pepper in rimmed dish.
3. Lightly dredge fish in seasoned flour.
4. Heat pan with 1 tbsp oil.  Cook fish without moving 3-4 minutes each side.

Honey Lime Tilapia recipe adapted from One Lovely Life

Garlic-Dill Salmon

Both my husband and I are fish lovers (just ask my mother, when I was little she had a book custom made for me and inside it said the character was heading home for fish!), so I'm always looking for new ways to cook fish.

Tonight's recipe was super fast.  The recipe instructs to marinate the salmon for up to three hours; however, since I work full-time and don't love (read: don't let) when my husband uses my kitchen tools, I only had the time it took him to shower after our workout added to the time it took to preheat the oven to let the fish marinate.  Though it was not nearly the amount of time the original recipe called for, the 20-or-so minutes our salmon was in the refrigerator soaking up the marinate was certainly enough.

A keeper in my salmon repertoire for sure.

Garlic-Dill Salmon

What You Need:

• 2 salmon filets (6 oz each)
• 2 garlic cloves, pressed
• 3 oz orange juice
• 1 tsp dried dill
• salt and pepper

How You Do It:

1. Before you preheat the oven, add all ingredients into plastic bag and marinate in refrigerator.
2. Preheat oven to 375*.
3. Place salmon and half marinate in baking dish.
4. Bake 15-20 minutes until salmon is done to your liking.

Garlic-Dill Salmon adapted from EveryDay with Rachael Ray

Lemon & Mushroom Orzo

This has been a strange week in our house.  My husband has been pretty under the weather and hasn't much gotten off the couch, let alone eaten much, so there hasn't been much cooking around here.  Tonight, however, he was finally feeling better so dinner was in order.  I put in a good workout, so a light dinner for me was perfect and with my husband's stomach finally coming around, he too wasn't interested in anything all too heavy.

I had two packages of mushrooms in the refrigerator for a dish I had originally planned on making this week and didn't, so I had just the recipe to try out.

Just the right amount of lemon, garlic, mushrooms, and a hint of basil, this made enough for us each to have dinner and another five, yes five, packages in the refrigerator.  This would most certainly make for a good side dish for a dinner party.  I will remember that...

Lemon & Mushroom Orzo

What You Need:

Lemon & Mushroom Orzo

• 1 package orzo (1 lb.)
• 3/4 c sliced almonds, toasted
• 2 lemons (the juice of both and the zest of one)
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 8-oz packages sliced mushrooms
• 3 large cloves garlic, pressed
• 12 basil leaves, chopped

How You Do It:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook orzo according to package.  Once the orzo has fully cooked, drain and rinse.
2. While the water boils and orzo cooks, heat oil in a large rimmed pan.  Saute mushrooms.  Once the mushrooms start to soften, add garlic and continue to saute until mushrooms are fully softened.
3. Add the lemon juice, zest, toasted almonds, and basil.  Stir to combine, then fold in cooked orzo.

Next time I might sprinkle this with some parmesan...


Lemon & Mushroom Orzo adapted from EveryDay with Rachael Ray