When the weather breaks and the smell of fallen leaves and chimneys set ablaze travel the air into your living room with windows finally thrown open to welcome it all, you crave things warm and savory. At least I do. And if I could have breakfast at every meal I would!! These were easy to…
Category: Meat
stuffed radicchio with a sunflower seed pesto
After my gallbladder was removed I agonized over what foods I could eat. For a self-professed foodie this was worst-case-scenerio type stuff… Being afraid of food. I quickly learned this was a typical response of the 750,000 plus people in America alone (per year) who have had this surgery. I can go further into why…
squid ink pasta with ground beef, kale and a pistachio pesto
Squid Ink has a lot of nutrients, fantastic flavor and a sexy dark aura. Pair it with my “meet you in the schoolyard”, tough-guy pesto and you have a robust filling dinner that is as glorious as it is glamorous. Like many pastas, this is a quick meal that would fit the 20 min-prep weekday…
(best damn) turkey meatballs with fennel and cream cheese
I’m never giving up Italian food. Ever. Ever. Not sure if that’s why I married an Italian, seeing as I’m the one doing all the cooking (insert an off in the distance gaze – pondering life choices <here>) but, he does find his way into the kitchen whenever an Italian dish is being made. Just…
spinach and fresh mozzarella stuffed chicken over a cheese-free walnut pesto
Not a massive stuffed chicken fan only because I can’t find that many alternations which are easy to do on a weeknight with things you may already have around the house. People like to get fancy… I’m sometimes a purist and just go with the classics: things stuffed with cheese. The chicken came out very…
stuffed bell peppers with ground turkey, spinach and liviva “rice” over cauliflower “mashed potatoes” with dill
I love stuffed peppers… I love how versatile they are but, usually they include a carb I’m trying to avoid: rice. Liviva Foods has an excellent substitute for rice (among some other things) that worked perfectly here. You Will Need: * Bell Pepper * Rice (or substitute) * Spinach * Parmesan (or cheese of choice)…
kielbasa salad with sprout “petals” and a wild blueberry dressing
I never met a kielbasa I didn’t like – until I saw all the sugar involved… I searched our local grocery store for kielbasa without sugar to no avail. I literally gave up, resigned to the fact I would never again enjoy kielbasa warmed on the stove with a mustard dipping sauce. That was a…
sweet italian sausage over a parmesan puree of roasted cauliflower and onion in a brown butter sauce (includes a salmon variation)
I just finished watching the PBS documentary about The Little Inn at Washington (for the sixth time – and you’ll find it now on Amazon Prime if looking for it before PBS releases it again this coming August). I remembered when I went there, I don’t remember everything I ate but I do remember the…
sous vide pork tenderloin with vegetables
A pork tenderloin is one of the easiest things in the world, and cooking sous vide is like cooking with a crock pot on steroids. This came out juicy and the seasoning stayed with the meat. If you can find miniature pork loins I highly recommend them… You Will Need: A Sous Vide (my sous…
baked spinach and grass fed beef in cheese rolls
I had never tried these cheese rolls before. Though I knew they were inexpensive and versatile, they sat in my fridge for quite some time. I’m embarrassed to write that now, considering all the meals where we could have enjoyed them. Nevertheless, here’s a quick idea for anyone who has been eying these at the…
chicken and roasted broccoli soup with toasted sesame oil
I had wanted to find a way to use up what we had at the time in our home: a half empty box of broth and some broccoli. Of course that would be fine but, my husband would have said he was still hungry and hour later. And then into the keto snacks he’d go……
mini stuffed rosemary meatballs with toasted sesame seed oil and creamy cheesy cauliflower
Eating “Keto” has been so much easier than I expected. I don’t miss bread, I don’t miss pasta, I don’t miss rice or chips… I get to eat meat, seafood, desserts, CHEESE. Last night I made a Cheez-It snack that tasted just like the real thing… (see instagram post) and it satisfied my need for…
garlic basil pork loin with pureed vegetables
Pork loin is one of the most versatile proteins I can think of. And much like the cornish hen recipe preceding it, this recipe is just as fool-proof. There’s no great story to accompany this post; it’s about as straight-forward as it gets for an easy Sunday night dinner. You Will Need: * Pork Loin…
rosemary and lemon cornish hens with roasted broccoli and cheddar cauliflower “mashed potatoes”
I like a thing that’s a miniature version of the original thing: * Puppies* Personal Shakers for a Cocktail* The Mini Cooper ……. * Puppies So when I started to cook these cornish hens instead of roasted chicken, I realized what little work I really needed to do in comparison. Choose veggies as a side…
cheese tacos with chicken, salsa, avocado and sour cream
I am a massive cheese fan. I am also aware there is a heightened spotlight placed on dairy farms recently however, I admit I still love my cheese… Perhaps in the future when I have received the complete benefits of this low carb lifestyle, I will let go of dairy but, for right now, I…
mini eggplant pizzas
So it’s Tuesday and there’s nothing really notable about this day. Sure, it signifies the end of Monday but, there’s not even a cute Tuesday wine reference like Thirsty Thursday or Wine Wednesday, or a memory hashtag like #TBT or #WBW. Tuesdays are the new Wednesday of the week: a forgotten hangnail of a day…
citrus and rosemary cornish hens with creamy corn soup and pistachio snow peas
When I first told Joe that I was going to be making us Cornish hens, he literally laughed. I absolutely took it personally until I found out his family would have these baby hens every Christmas, and he was wondering what took me so long to make them. In truth, it took my making my…
steak cooked in a brown butter sauce, basil sautéed snow peas and garlic, rosemary, sour cream mashed potatoes
I used to stay completely away from red meat. Not just because I was convinced it was bad for me, but also because I never really knew what to do with it. Save the usual ground beef, steaks were a mystery to me. I then learned (and quite quickly), how truly archaic a man’s appetite…
dinner party and chess, feast before battle (salmon wellington)
When I was in college I had a boyfriend who tried in vain to teach me how to play chess. He did his best to be patient with me however, I simply would not stay still and focused; too interested in the mundane basic boring things (like what party at which fraternity house we were…
chicken cordon bleu, brussel sprouts and walnuts with a lemon dijonnaise
Chicken has been something of a crapshoot lately. I never know what is safe to eat anymore. What are we really eating… Is “organic” really organic? You can drive yourself crazy overthinking every company. Once you’re sure you’ve found a good one, there’s a recall. In the end, you just do the best you can….
petite turkey kielbasa wellington with rosemary potatoes and brussel sprouts over a tarragon, sesame sauce
Sometimes I get it in my head I was born during the wrong era. I should have been alive during Victorian times, when everyone ate abundantly (well, the wealthy did anyway – which I would obviously be in this fantasy), wrote long loving poetry and took walks with parasols. They’d paint mindlessly, gossip and drink…
citrus rosemary spatchcocked roast chicken, artichoke avocado salad with a homemade berry dressing
So I will admit something… I had never attempted a roast chicken until Prince Harry got engaged. To be honest, I was intimidated. The size of it, the inside being in a bag (or not), would it fit in my Mini Smart Oven… (we use our standard oven for storage). When I saw the Meghan…
no pasta lasagna
It’s pouring here in Florida, as it does now most days. The storms are heavy and arrogant. They command all of your attention with either the massive claps of thunder, the unrelenting rain or the sky firing up suddenly with rapid bolts of lightening surly to hit somewhere near you. Some days, the electricity goes…
live a curated life 