Sausage Gravy and Biscuits

This is the breakfast I made for my husband on Father's Day. It came out amazing!! He got his with eggs, bacon and potatoes on the side, but just the biscuit with the gravy is plenty on its own.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 lbs. breakfast sausage {the bulk kind in a roll}
• 1/4 C. butter
• 1/4 C. flour
• 5 C. milk
• pepper, onion powder, garlic salt to taste
• biscuits {I used the refrigerated kind in a roll}

Brown sausage in an electric skillet or frying pan.  Set sausage aside in a bowl and drain grease.  

In the same skillet, melt butter.  Stir in flour to make a thick paste.  Cook the paste for a few minutes until it turns a golden brown color. 

Gradually whisk in milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until gravy thickens.  

Season with pepper, onion powder, and garlic salt to taste.  {NOTE:  It takes more seasoning than you might expect to keep the gravy from tasting too bland.  Just keep sprinkling and tasting until you like it.}  

Stir browned sausage into the gravy and serve over biscuits.

This makes a lot of gravy! So be prepared to serve this to at least 4-5 people or have left overs! It's an easy and tasty recipe to try. Enjoy!!




Credits:sausage gravy

Grilled Cilantro Lime Chicken with Southwestern Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

So, I have what I like to call my "Easy dinner nights". And if It's not take out night, I want it to be a meal that I can cook in under 30 minutes. Last night was grocery shopping night, and since I didn't get home until later- I wanted an easy dinner. Still I was craving something filling and satisfying. And I thought of this right before I left to go shopping. I had a large sweet potato in my pantry and had my husband bake it while I was out. So it would be ready for me to prepare by the time I got home to make the rest of the meal. 

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 large sweet potato ( This is for 2, we each had half)
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 2 teaspoons pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 chopped red onion
• 1/2 cup corn
• 1/2 cup black beans (drained and rinsed)
• 1 package (about 6 small pieces) boneless skinless chicken thighs
• juice from 2 limes
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 slices pepper jack cheese (for topping of potato)

Preheat the oven to 375, pierce the sweet potato with a fork multiple times, rub with a little olive oil and sea salt, place in a foiled baking dish and bake for about 90 minutes. Check after an hour you should be able to poke right through it if its done.

Place chicken in a ziplock bag along with salt, pepper, lime juice, garlic, and cilantro. Let sit out and marinate for about 15 minutes.

Grill chicken for about 5 minutes on each side, until cooked.

While chicken is cooking, sauté the onions with some olive oil in a small pan for about 2 minutes until softened. Add corn and beans and cook for another minute or two. Set it aside.

Take your sweet potato, cut it in half. scoop the insides out of both halves into a bowl. Add the corn and bean mixture to the sweet potatoes, add salt and pepper to taste and combine until smooth.

Replace the mixture back into the potato skins, and top with some pepper jack cheese. Bake at 350 for 5-10 minutes- until cheese is melted.

This dinner was awesome! We cut the chicken, almost shredded it and served it next to the potato with a dollop of sour cream. I will most certainly make this again!

Zucchini Parmesan Subs

When I first saw the recipe I based this meal off of, it called for breading and frying the zucchini in oil. Normally I would do that, but since we're trying to eat healthy I opted for baking the zucchini instead. And honestly, You really can't tell the difference- It still had a great crunch, and this made for an amazing sandwich. I would try this exact same recipe with eggplant sometime too.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 medium zucchini sliced into 3" x 1/2" sticks
• 1 large egg white
• 1/3 cup seasoned whole wheat bread crumbs
• 2 tbsp grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• cooking spray
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• salt
• fresh pepper

In a small bowl, beat egg whites and season with salt and pepper. In a ziplock bag,place breadcrumbs, garlic powder and cheese and shake well. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray and set aside.

Dip zucchini sticks into eggs then into bread crumb and cheese mixture, a few at a time and shake to coat. Place the breaded zucchini in a single layer and spray more cooking spray on top. Bake at 425° for about 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.

While You're doing the zucchini you can whip together a really quick sauce for the subs:

• 1/2 28 oz can of diced tomatoes (used the other half for another recipe)
• 3/4 can of tomato paste (used 2 tablespoons for another recipe)
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/4 chopped onion
• olive oil
• italian seasoning
• salt
• pepper

Saute onions in a small sauce pan with olive oil for about 2 minutes until softened. Add garlic cook another minute.

Add diced tomatos and tomato paste, and seasonings. Cook on low and stir for about 20 minutes (while zucchini is cooking ).

Once the sauce and the zucchini are done, you can assemble the subs. I like to toast the rolls a little before so I baked them at 350 for about 5 minutes. Add a little sauce to the bottom, then the zucchini and top with some parm cheese. 

Stick them under the broiler in the oven for about 2 minutes until the cheese is melted (don't burn the bread). 

These subs were so yummy and guilt free ( I used wheat sub rolls ). They reheated really good too, the next day. I will most certainly make these again - or try doing eggplant instead of the zucchini. enjoy!

Credits:baked zucchini sticks

Stuffed Peppers with Ground Turkey and Feta

                                                  

For the past few months, whenever I've made stuffed peppers they've been vegetarian. So I decided to try my hand at a meat filled stuffed pepper for once. They came out awesome, and this is how I did it.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 Bell peppers (there was enough filling to do 4-5 peppers)
• 1.5 lbs ground turkey
• 1/2 of a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes (I used the rest for my zucchini parm subs the next night)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 stalks of celery small diced
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste ( again I used the rest of the small can for zucchini parm)
• 2 tablespoons dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 1- 1/2  cups crumbled feta cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet on the stove. Once hot, add the onion and celery, and saute for 5 minutes until soft. Add the minced garlic and continue sauteing for another minute.

Turn the heat to high. Add the tomato paste to the skillet and mash the onions, celery and garlic together with the paste. Cook for three minutes, stirring continuously.

Add the ground turkey and brown with the veggies. This should take about six minutes.

Then, add the diced tomatoes, salt, basil, oregano and red pepper flakes. Bring mixture to a simmer and cook for about 15-20 minutes, until sauce reduces and isn’t as runny. Remove pan from heat and stir in the feta cheese.

Place the green bell peppers on a tin foil-lined sheet tray. Fill each pepper with turkey and feta mixture. Add a littly more feta on top. Once all peppers have been filled, cover peppers with a large piece of tin foil and seal.

Bake peppers for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

These came out really delicious and is something I'd most definitely make again. I served these with roasted red potatoes, which are extremely easy to make.

                                   

INGREDIENTS:

• 5-6 small red potatoes, washed and cut into bit sized pieces
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

Combine all ingredients and place in a foil lined baking dish. Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes or until you can pierce potato with a fork.

The combination of these two dishes were amazing- I highly recommend doing them together! 

CREDITS:ground turkey and feta stuffed peppers

Steak tips with a Jalapeño Cucumber Chimichurri Sauce

So when I first saw this recipe that I wanted to do it was a grilled skirt steak with a roasted jalapeño chimichurri on top. First, the supermarket I went to didn't have skirt steak, so I got sirloin tips. Then as I started to make the sauce I didn't have 2 cups each of the cilantro and parsley ( I grow my own herbs in a garden box) - So I had to improvise with what I had. And this is what I came up with.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1.5 lbs Sirloin tips
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• 3 Jalapeño peppers (whole)
• 1 cucumber de-seeded and diced
• 1 cup greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro 
• 1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon dill
• 1 tablespoon sugar

First you want to grill or broil your jalapeños until they are charred on all sides. This will take 5-10 minutes depending on how you're doing it.

After they have cooled you want to remove the seeds and stems (the seeds are where the majority of the spice is so make sure you get rid of all of them. This will still be pretty spicy because I used 3 peppers, Id say use 2 if you don't want it as spicy).

Add the jalapeños, cucumber, yogurt, cilantro, parsley, garlic, dill and sugar to a food processor and blend. You can adjust the amount of yogurt to how spicy it is an if you want to cool it down.

Drizzle a little bit of olive oil on the steak, and season generously with salt and pepper. 

Grill steak until desired doneness - and drizzle the sauce on top to serve.

We ate our's with a baked sweet potato on the side.

This was a really interesting sauce, that I have never made before. The greek yogurt and cucumber really offset the spiciness. I would definitely try this again and either use 2 jalapeños instead of 3 or actually make sure I have enough herbs on hand and try making a traditional chimichurri.

Baked Salmon with Dijon and Garlic

I Made this last night and it literally took me a half hour to make, between prep and cook time. And it was Mighty delicious if I do say so myself. I also made a parmesan orzo with spinach, mushrooms and diced tomatoes. Here is my recipe for the spinach orzo, and I just sautéed some diced tomatoes and mushrooms in with it. It was a lovely combination.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pound of salmon filets (I had the skin cut off)
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 2 large OR 3 small cloves of garlic, pressed
• 1.5 teaspoons Dijon mustard (grey poupon)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 cup mild olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Line a baking dish with foil, add the salmon and preheat the oven to 450 

Combine the parsley, garlic, mustard, salt, pepper, olive oil and fresh lemon juice in a small bowl- and cover the salmon generously with it. ( I added a few lemon slices on top as well )

Bake at 450 for 12-15 minutes (mine was closer to 15 minutes)

And that's it! Serve along with your favorite sides, or try my spinach orzo - and this will not disappoint! Enjoy!! :)



Credits: garlic dijon salmon

Tex-Mex Bean Burger

This is really a easy and flavorful vegetarian burger. Just don't add the bacon at the end. It was actually so yummy that if you didn't put the raw egg in it to bind it up, it would be a really great bean dip.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 (15 ounce) can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup corn
• 1/3 cup fresh tomato, diced
• 1/4 cup red onion, diced
• 1 teaspoon jalapeno pepper, seeds and ribs removed, minced
• 1 heaping tablespoon fresh cilantro or parsley, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt and a few cracks black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon chile powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Mexican oregano, crushed between fingers
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/3 cup bread crumbs
• 1 egg, beaten

TOPPINGS:

• wheat buns
• mild cheddar slices
• sliced avocados
• crispy bacon

Coarsely mash up the beans in a bowl, add the rest of the ingredients in and combine with a fork. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Heat a skillet over medium heat and grease lightly. Form mixture into patties and cook 5-6 minutes on each side until crispy on the outside.

Melt cheese over top and prepare burger the way that you would like.

This was really easy to make, and the kind of ingredients  that you could always have on hand and make at any time :) enjoy!

Credits: tex mex burger