Simplicity

Simple. Easy. Delicious. Whole.

An entire dinner with only several ingredients.

Simple Dinner
Serves 3-4 people
Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Cook Time: 40 Minutes

Oven Baked Potato Wedges

4-5 red potatoes
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh dill
kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Wash and dry potatoes. Cut into wedges (I cut them into 8 wedges per potato). Place potatoes in a bowl and pour olive oil over top. Add chopped dill and salt and pepper to taste. Stir up to evenly coat potatoes. Place parchment paper on a baking sheet and lay out potatoes in a single layer. Bake wedges for 35-40 minutes until potatoes are golden brown, turning potatoes half way through.

Lemon and Dill Cod

1 pound cod fillets
2 tablespoons fresh dill
2 lemons
kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9x13 glass pan with cooking spray. Lay fillets in a single layer in pan. Squeeze the juice from 1 lemon over the top of fillets. Finely chop dill and sprinkle over fillets evenly and add salt and pepper to taste. Slice last lemon into thin slices and lay over top of fillets. Bake fillets 15-20 minutes (depending on thickness) until fillets flake apart when you insert a fork into the fillet and lightly twist.

Butter Braised Cabbage

1/3 head red cabbage
1 tablespoon butter (or earth balance)
salt and pepper to taste

Heat a large skillet pan over medium heat. Thinly slice cabbage (about 1/8" - 1/4" thick). Melt butter in bottom of pan and add cabbage. Season with salt and pepper. Stirring every few minutes, cook cabbage until it cooks down by about 1/2 (should take you about 10-15 minutes). Be careful not to burn cabbage (turn down heat if needed.) Cabbage should be soft when done.

The CHEWIEST Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER

Let's talk chocolate chip cookies for a minute. A person's CCC (chocolate chip cookie) preference is as personal as their preference in underwear styles! There's chewy, crispy, crunchy, nutty, chocolate overload, over baked, under baked, flat, big and fat...so so many options! I personally am totally in the chewy, under baked, and fat camp!

If you'd like to pull up your sleeping bag next to me at chewy fat CCC camp then THIS is the recipe for you!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes: 2-3 dozen depending on size
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Baking Time: 9 minutes/pan

3/4 cup salted butter, softened to room temp
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 granulated sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips (I used 1/2 cup milk chocolate chocolate chips, 1/2 cup M & M's on this batch!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. The oven rack should be positioned in the middle of your oven.

In your stand mixer bowl (if you don't have one...totally invest in one!) with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar about 1-2 minutes until it is light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat in.

Add in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Mix until everything is just combined in.

Fold in chocolate chips and/or M & M's with a spatula, scraping bottom of bowl to make sure no bits are left at the bottom of the bowl.

Using a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop, drop cookies onto an ungreased baking sheet making sure that the cookie dough was packed in there good so that the dough is in ball form (this helps make them big and CHEWY!). Bake about 9 minutes, making sure to pull out cookies as soon as cookies start to brown on the edges for optimal chewiness. Let them cool for a few minutes on the pan before removing with a spatula so they don't squish when removing. Place on parchment paper and allow to fully cool before placing them in a storage container (if that is you haven't devoured the entire batch BEFORE they cool)...

Simple Pineapple Cupcakes

These cupcakes have only 5 ingredients for the cupcakes and frosting AND have only 135 calories per cupcake! I do try to make baked goods from scratch, but sometimes I need a simple quick recipe for last minute birthday celebrations! (Not that I would EVER forget someones birthday...) I've seen a lot of the recipes for low calorie cake using a can of soda, but have never tried it since I don't drink soda. So when I saw this recipe using a can of fruit (!) I thought I'd give 'er a whirl. I was really surprised how light and fluffy the cupcakes turned out and the frosting was super tasty!

Easy Pineapple Cupcakes
Makes 24 cupcakes
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Bake Time: 18-20 minutes

For the cake:

15.25 ounce package of yellow cake mix (I used Betty Crocker Super Moist)
20 ounce can crushed pineapple in juice (do not drain)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Add cake mix and pineapple to a large bowl and beat with a mixer on high for 2 minutes. Put liners in standard size muffin tins. Fill each cup 2/3 full with cake batter.

Bake cupcakes for 15-20 minutes, until tops are slightly golden and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of a cupcake.

For the frosting:
8 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese
20 ounce can crushed pineapple, drained well!
3/4 cup marshmellow fluff
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Drain pineapple well! I used a mesh strainer and pushed pineapple down with my hand until no other liquid came out. You could also use cheese cloth...but I was out.

Add all ingredients in a large bowl and beat with a mixer until combined and smooth, about 1 - 2 minutes.

Spread frosting on cooled cupcakes...about 1 1/2 tablespoons of frosting per cupcake. Garnish cupcakes with whatever you'd like! I thought the strawberries were cute and added to the nice tropical theme.

*I'm starting to wonder if this recipe will work with smashed strawberries also. I'll report back if I end up making them!

Vegetable Lasagna

There is something about making simple recipes to fuel my family with natural ingredients that makes me so happy. Packing a homemade granola bar into Walnut's backpack for snack as he heads to Kindergarten each morning is one of those little pleasures.

2011 has been a major year for us. I turned 30, Walnut started Kindergarten, Peanut started Preschool, I celebrated 10 years of marriage, I've had the same best friend for 20 years, I ran 3 half-marathons and a handful of other smaller races, Walnut experienced the same enjoyment I get from racing, and there is still a whole month to go!

What I learned the most from the last year is the importance of fueling your body with what it needs and not what tastes good or is convenient. I've learned you only have one body and you need to take care of it from a young age. I've learned also, that sometimes your body just needs a break. You can only push so hard, ask it to do so many things and ignore small aches and pains for so long. Then you take a break. You heal, you pray, and you start again but this time wiser about what your body needs.

Vegetable Lasagna

For Sauce:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 medium zucchini, chopped to 1/2" cubes
1 small eggplant, chopped to 1/2" cubes
8 ounces mushroom, sliced
28 ounce can fire roasted diced tomatoes
6 ounce can tomato paste
1 1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
1 1/2 tablespoon dried basil
1 1/2 tablespoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon salt (or adjust to your taste)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

For Filling:
15 ounces ricotta cheese
2-3 cups fresh spinach
1 egg

8 oven-ready lasagna noodles
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzerella cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large pan, heat olive oil and add onion and garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes until they start to brown. Add zucchini, eggplant and mushrooms and continue to cook for about 5 minutes until vegetable start to soften. Add tomatoes, paste, dried herbs, salt and sugar. Reduce to simmer for 10 minutes.

While sauce is simmering, put ricotta, fresh spinach and egg into a food processor and pulse several times until spinach has been incorporated into ricotta.

To assemble:
Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Lay 4 noodles in bottom of the pan (or enough noodles to cover bottom of pan). Scoop 1/2 of sauce over the top of noodles. Then spread all of ricotta mixture over top of sauce. Add another layer noodles, top with remaining sauce and sprinkle with shredded mozzerella cheese.

Bake uncovered for 45 minutes. The top layer of cheese should be melted and beautifully browned.

Enjoy!!

*I split the ricotta over two layers, but the top layer kind of dried out while baking, so going forward I will put all the ricotta between the two layers of noodles as the directions indicate!

Black Bean and Corn Patties

Quick and easy weeknight dinners are a must have some nights. With the kids in basketball, dance, golf and school we are away from home more then not it feels like. I'd rather not hit up drive-thru on late nights, so I have several go to recipes that come together quickly when hunger strikes!

Black Bean and Corn Patties
makes 8 servings (or 6 really big patties)
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes

2 cans black beans - drained and rinsed
1 ear corn - kernels removed from cob
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
2 eggs - lightly beaten
1/2 red pepper, chopped into small pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon chipolte powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and stir to thoroughly distribute spices and eggs. Using a potato masher, lightly mash mixture until only half of the beans are still whole.

Press desired amount of bean mix with your hands into patty form. Make sure patties are compact so they don't break apart when cooking. I used a 1/2 cup of bean mix for each patty.

Heat a large frying pan to medium high heat. Once pan is hot, coat with cooking spray and place patties in pan. Cook until patties have a golden crust and then flip to other side. Total cook time is about 4 minutes on each side.

Serve with delicious toppings such as avocado, pickles, tomato and lettuce. (post picture I doused this thing with spicy mustard too!)

Enjoy and have a great night!!