Fish
Tonight dinner was on the healthy side. Roasted Whitiing fish fillets with my signature white wine reduced sauce.Also served with this delicious fish and sauce was roasted cauliflower, carrots, red potato, onion and tomato.
Monthly Archives: February 2016
Apple-Pecan Cupcakes
Apple pecan
These delicious cupcakes have the taste of apple pie but in a cupcakes shape for an easy eat on the go!
.2 cups chopped Apples, any kind
.1 tbsp fresh Lemon juice
.2 cups All purpose flour
.2 tsp. Baking powder
.½ cup Light brown sugar substitutes
.1 cup Pecan chopped and divided
.2/3 cup low fat Milk
.1 stick of Butter room temperature
.1 large Egg
.1 tsp Cinnamon
.½ tsp grated Nutmeg
.¼ tsp Salt
.1 tsp Vanilla
Preheat oven 375
Peel and chop the apples to small bite sizes, add lemon juice and set aside.
Line a muffin pan with baking paper and set aside.
In a stand mixer bowl beat brown sugar and butter until it is soft, add egg, vanilla and mix well for about a minute.
Sift flour; add salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, chopped apples and half the chopped pecans.
On a low speed add the flour mixture and alternate with the milk starting and ending with the flour, making sure not to over mix.
With ice cream scope, adds the batter to the lined muffin pan, sprinkle the top with the remaining chopped pecans.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
It makes 12 cupcakes.
Watching Gods of Egypt
Its been a long time since we went to the movies. It takes an interesting movie for me to actually drive to the movie theater and for me that was Gods of Egypt! Day date with the hubby 😬 
Beef Kebabs
Beef kebabs
Have you ever met anyone that does not like to eat Kabab? Everyone loves it. It is delicious and easy to make at home, this recipe is easy and fast enough to make for a weeknight dinner.
The rule is to have dinner on the table no later than 7 pm every night at our house, so I try my best to have delicious food by that time and having easy recipes up my sleeves is all I need to accomplish that.
.2 cups fresh parsley
.1 cup fresh cilantro
.1 large onion
.4 lbs lean ground beef
.1 tbsp salt
.1 tbsp black pepper
.1 tbsp curry powder
.4 tbsp olive oil
.½ tbsp crushed red pepper
Bring meat to room temperature.
Preheat oven to 375
In a food processer, using the pulse button mince parsley and onion but making sure it does not turned to water, about 10 pulses.
Add to the meat; salt, black pepper, curry powder, and olive oil, with clean hands mix the meat until all incorporated.
Take a small amount of the meat, the size of small meatball and form a small log without over working the meat. Line up in baking pan lined up with parchment paper.
Bake for 17-20 minutes until the meat is fully cooked.
Serve with roasted chili pepper, tomato, onion, homemade Hummus and baked fries.
Baked Chicken
Baked chicken
Chicken is an accessible and cost effective ingredient to use in making any dish for weeknights dinners, well most of the time! My husband is a big fan of chicken, so you will find us having chicken few times a week, and that could get boring.
Not sure why I came up with this dish. I had chicken breasts, started cutting it to bites sizes while thinking about what to make, and after standing there and looking at it for few minutes, I opened the coppered and saw a bag of seasoned croutons and a can of mushroom soup and I said ok this would do and let us try it, why not right? Collected the rest of the ingredient as you could see below and as they say, the rest is history!
This dish actually came out tasty; it is full of flavor, hearty and sticks to your rips kind of dish.
.1 can 10 ½ oz cream of mushroom soup
.1 bag 5 oz seasoned croutons
.1 tbsp poultry seasonings
.1 cup frozen mixed vegetable
.¾-cup sour cream
.1-cup water or chicken broth
.1 tbsp. salt
.½ tbsp. black pepper
.2 ½ lbs. chicken cut to bites size
.2 tbsp. fresh parsley
.½ tbsp. curry powder
.2-cups milk
.2 tbsp olive oil
Preheat oven to 400
In a large mixing bowl whisk cream of mushroom soup, milk, water or chicken broth, and sour cream until all combined.
In 9 x13 baking pan, with clean hands mix Chicken with poultry seasoning, vegetable, salt, black pepper, curry powder, and olive oil until chicken covered with the seasoning and vegetable distributed evenly. Add cream of mushroom mix, croutons and mix well with clean hands making sure the croutons well distributed evenly in the pan.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the chicken fully cooked. Sprinkle with fresh parsley and serve.
TIP: Always wash your chicken; never cook directly from the package that comes in without washing it.
Turkey Burger
Turkey burger
Making burgers at home is one of the easiest meals for weeknight dinners, especially if you are your own herbs grower…
I have been growing a small herb garden on my balcony for years, which makes it easy and convenient to go outside and cut fresh parsley, Sage, Rosemary, or any other herbs any time I need it.
If you do not have your own garden, it is always a good idea to stock up on fresh herbs just for that quick dinner you need to make.
The burgers made with lean Turkey meat and fresh herbs, served with roasted potato instead of the normal fried fries making it a healthy, delicious, and easy dinner, which would be ready in 30 minutes.
.3 Lbs.. Turkey ground meat
.3 Tbsp. Fresh parsley
.3 Tbsp. fresh Sage
.3 Tbsp. fresh Rosemary
.3 Tbsp. Olive Oil
.1/2 Tbsp. Salt
.1/2 Tbsp. Black Pepper
.1/2 Tbsp. Curry Powder
Preheat conventional oven to 370
Chop herbs and add to Turkey meat, add salt, black pepper, curry powder and olive oil, mix well until all incorporated.
Form patties to the size you desire and line in a baking pan lined with parchment paper, bake for 15-20 minutes or until it is fully cooked.
makes about 10 large patties.
Spinach stew
Spinach stew
This stow is not just a healthy dish but also an easy one to make on a weeknight after a long day at work.
This is my mom recipe that she made for dinners for as long as I could remember.
I am a firm believer of cooking everything from a scratch when you have the time, but sometimes it’s a good and no shame of getting some help from the store! Rotisserie chicken is one of the help you could get from the store to speed up your weeknight dinner.
Spinach stew best and always served with rice pilaf with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice at my table!
.3-5 lb fresh spinach
.1 medium size rotisserie chicken
.5 cloves of garlic smashed
.1/2 tbsp salt
.1 teaspoon nutmegs
.2 cups of water or chicken stock
.4 tbsp margarine
Remove the bones and skin from the chicken, shred to medium bite size and set a side.
In a large pot on medium heat melt the margarine and add the smashed garlic, cook for few seconds making sure not to burn it.
Chop the spinach and add it a little at a time to the garlic, making sure to stir after every addition.
Add water, salt and sir to mix, cook on low simmer for 15 minutes.
Football Sunday
Football Sunday
Today I been thinking about what to serve for tomorrow’s game! Football Sunday is an important day at my house as you can imagine, the screaming and swearing at the tv is the normal :)! Last year I served Falafel, Hummus, and Kibi. And for dessert I made white cake with cream cheese frosting and dusted it with chopped pecans. I went the middle eastern route all the way! This year I am going to make some of my middle eastern dishes but adding to that some of the American traditional Football Sunday food to satisfy everyone taste and requests.
The menu is:
Safiha, its a middle eastern homemade flat bread topped with some kind of meat, pine nuts and among other special ingredients.
Hot wings, this is a staple Football Sunday food, I bake my wings instead of frying them to make them a little on the healthy side, and with homemade sauce they will be devoured as soon as they hit the table!
Cheese cake, what else better to serve after the spicy hot wings other than cold cheese cake, homemade of course… Topped with homemade mixed berries sauce.
Pot Roast
Pot roast
Last night dinner was delicious and my husband made it, the man could follow a recipe and I love that about him!
Had no idea about what to make for dinner, so we went back and forth texting each other’s on what to make for dinner! We kept on telling each other what you think we should make for dinner. He would response what do you feel like making? If I knew I would not ask you, I responded…
At the end, I said surprise me! Therefore, he did, he made Pot Roast following one of my recipes to the last ingredient.
Got home and I could smell the delicious aroma before I even opened the door.
It was nice to walk in to the house and not to worry about dinner for a change. In addition, this was the results, delicious falling apart roast, he added Yukon gold potato, and sliced onion, simple dinner but packed with tons of flavor.
Israeli Couscous
Israeli couscous
My mom is one of the best cooks I ever known, her food came from the heart. she have so much love for food that you could taste it every time you would eat her food… Israeli couscous was and still is one of my favorite dishes she made growing up.she always made it with chicken and Lamb stews.
I was asked to post the recipe by friends and family, so here it is! And the name is so appropriate Israeli Couscous and I was born there get it? hehehehehe ok ok here is the recipe!
.2 1/2 cups Israeli Couscous
.3 Tbsp. Butter
.1/2 Tbsp. Salt
.1/2 Tbsp. Saffron
.1 Tbsp. olive oil
.2 1/2 cups hot chicken broth
Add Saffron to Chicken broth and set a side to steep for few minutes.
In a large pot heat olive oil and butter, add couscous and toast for about 4 -5 minutes or until golden brown. Making sure to stir every few seconds to avoid burning it.
Add salt and stir for few seconds , add the chicken broth mixed with the Saffron, bring to boil. Lower the heat to simmer and cook fully covered until the broth is absorbed and the couscous is fully cooked, about 20 minutes.
Toss with a fork and serve!
Chicken with Olives
Chicken with olives
Cooking chicken could get boring after a while, so I came up with this dish last night after looking in my pantry and trying to figure out what to make for dinner, I found few ingredients and ideas started coming together in my head :):)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees
.5 LB skinless, boneless chicken breast (about 4 or 5 large breast)
.2 5 oz. jar pimiento stuffed olives
.2 cans cream of mushroom soup 10 1/2 Oz. each
.1 1/2 cups Milk
.1 tsp. Salt
.1/4 tbsp. Black Pepper
.3 tbsp. chopped parsley
.1/2 tbsp. curry powder
Butterfly each chicken breast in to two, cut each piece to bite size chunks and add to 9 x 13 baking pan.
In a separate bowl, whisk cream of mushroom with milk, add salt, pepper, and curry powder. Mix well to combine.
Drain the olives add to the chicken. Add the liquid mixture and with clean hands mix the chicken with the liquid making sure all covered.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 50 minutes, uncover and bake for another 10 minutes.
Corn bread Muffins
Corn bread muffins
Sunday is a fun day for me in the kitchen, it’s my day to be creative and come up with a new spin on an old recipes…changing some of the ingredient and the method of preparing a dish and testing your self’s confidence that you will produce delouses and unique dish it is so satisfying!
I made these corn bread muffins for the fact I had a box of cornmeal staring me in the face for the longest time, I kept reminding myself to make corn bread every time I looked at the box and let’s face it who does not like corn bread??
I wanted to see if there is a difference between adding melted butter to the batter instead of just mixing a soft butter as you would with a cake… so here is the recipe, hopping you will give it a chance and let me know how it turns out.
Preheat oven to 375 degree
.2 1/2 Cups of Sugar substitutes
.1/2 cup all Purpose Flour
.2 cups Corn mill
.1/2 tbsp. Baking powder
.2 Large Eggs
.1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
.1/2 Cup Sour Cream
.1 Cup Raisin
.1 Cup Milk
.1 tbsp. Vanilla extract
.1/2 tsp. Salt
.1 stick Unsalted Butter softened not melted
In a stand mixer, beat butter with sugar until smooth, add eggs one at a time mixing after each addition add vanilla and sour cream mix well.
In a small bowl add flour to raisin and set aside.
Add cornmeal to the butter mixture and beat for a minute.
Add baking powder, baking soda and salt, mix on low speed, add mixed flour and raisin.
In a slow stream add milk to the batter with the mixer on low speed, mix for few seconds.
Line mini cupcake pans with baking papers, using a small one table spoon ice cream scope fill the papers all the way and bake for 21 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Makes about 36 mini muffins