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!!

Whole Wheat Greek Yogurt Pancakes

I finally jumped into the deep end of running. I signed up for a half marathon! In four weeks from today, I will be joining 2,000 other runners and running (jogging for me) 13.1 miles through St. Cloud, MN, starting at the college I graduated from, St. Cloud State University. I thought why not make my first half marathon benefit a great school that I studied at for four years?

This morning I have to complete an eight mile training run. Up until today, all of my training runs have been done on the treadmill. But, spending one hour and twenty minutes running on the dreadmill doesn't sound so appealing. So, I'm heading outside. Cold weather is fine running for short runs, I don't mind it...but 8 miles? In 35 degrees?

Here's the view from my back window...doesn't look very welcoming does it?

This morning to fuel up for my eight miler we had pancakes. These pancakes are loaded with protein and whole wheat. I have one with a banana and one with blueberries, the kids usually have peanut butter or chocolate chips in theirs. Little do they know they are also low in sugar and high in protein. :)

Whole Wheat Greek Yogurt Pancakes

adapted from The Pioneer Woman's Sour Cream Pancake recipe

2 cups nonfat Greek yogurt (I use Chobani)
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup egg whites (or 2 eggs)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract


Combine yogurt, flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and whisk until combined. In a smaller bowl, whisk together eggs and extracts and add to the large bowl. Stir until just combined.


Heat a skillet to medium high heat and add 1/2 cup of batter. Spread it out a little bit with the back of a spoon (the batter is a little thick). Cook about 2 to 3 minutes per side until nice and golden brown.


I like to use Trader Joe's Maple Agave Syrup Blend over the top of my pancakes, along with some more fresh fruit to top it!


Enjoy!!

Jamacian Beef Patties

I celebrated the new year in San Diego, CA with my brother, whom I haven't seen in 2 years. He is a Marine, stationed at Camp Pendelton. We spent 5 days accomplishing a whole lot of nothing, something neither of us are accustomed to doing. Each morning we woke up and he complained about how cold the 50 degree weather was (HA! Back in Minnesota it was 10 degrees!!) Then we went for a nice long jog that involved either ridiculously steep hills (Escondido, where he lives, happens to be in the bottom of a valley so no matter where we went it was always up hill) or running along the serene but ferocious ocean. We ran across rivers in our (expensive) running shoes, we sprinted up steep hills until our thighs burned, then we went back to his apartment and ate until we couldn't move. On my last day there, we indulged in a frozen yogurt buffet at the mall and a 10 minute chair massage by some lovely gentlemen that didn't speak a speck of English.

Here is my brother and I (photo above) at Bernardo Winery outside of San Diego. It isn't a running winery anymore but they have tons of crazy stuff just laying around. Below is my brother and his wife. They are so in love it makes you nauseous, but in a good way.

We visited some lovely wineries and saw some beautiful artwork by various street vendors. The whole time I was there I only spent 4 hours actually within the city limits of San Diego. My poor camera only made an appearance one time. I was enjoying my freedom from everyday responsibilities...far to relaxed to think about pulling out the camera to document every moment of our time together. But now that I think about it, it sure would be nice to have a few pictures to remember my trip. Oh well!

Jamaican Beef Patties
Slightly adapted from EatingWell

Crust
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
5 tablespoons canola oil
1/3 cup ice water
1 large egg yolk

Filling
1 pound 93% lean ground beef
4 green onions, minced
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon salt

For Crust:
Add flours, turmeric, salt, baking powder in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Cut butter into small pieces and cut butter into flour mixture with a pastry cutter or fork until butter pieces are small, but still visible. Add oil and toss with a fork to combine. In a small bowl, whisk together water and egg yolk and add to flour mixture and stir until dough comes together. Knead for about a minute until dough comes together in a ball, then wrap in parchment paper and refrigerate for 1 hour.

For Filling:
Add ground beef, green onion and cayenne pepper and cook over medium heat until beef is no longer pink and is cooked through. Stir in breadcrumbs, water, thyme, turmeric and salt, mix well and let cool.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

To make patties roll out dough until about 3/8" thick, and using a 3" biscuit cutter, cut circles out of dough. Add 1 tablespoon of beef mixture onto dough and add another dough circle on top. Pinch sides tightly together with a fork and poke a hole in top of patty. Repeat until all dough or beef if gone. (I had quite a bit of meat left over, which we used for nachos the next night.) I ended up with 14 patties.

Bake patties until golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes. I served my patties sour cream. Enjoy!!