Garlic Baked Potatoes

Courtesy of Plated Perfection

Potatoes are awesome, for many reasons. The thing I love is that you can make them so many different ways. On this particular night, I decided to get creative with how I baked them, so here you go!

Ingredients:
2 baked potatoes (I used Yukon Gold)
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
olive oil
1 tb butter (approximately)
salt and pepper

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 425. Wash and dry the potatoes. Slice the potato evenly almost to the bottom, but be sure not to cut all the way through. Drizzle olive oil over the potatoes and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Be sure to distribute as evenly as possible. Place the slices of garlic throughout the potatoes. I only used about 4 slices per potato, but you can use as many as you like! Spray a baking pan with cooking spray and place the potatoes in the pan. Bake for approximately 15 minutes. Take the potatoes out and place a slab of butter on the top of each potato. Bake for an additional 15 minutes. I did put some Ranch on this at the end, but didn't get a picture -- that was a delicious addition!

Asian Style Turkey Meatballs & Lime Sesame Dipping Sauce

Adapted recipe and photos by For the Love of Cooking
Original recipe by Skinnytaste.com

Wow, this was delicious. It's been a while since something really blew my socks off, but this meal was just so flavorful and HEALTHY! You can't beat that. I highly recommend trying this soon. I will say that this didn't make as much food as I thought it would. I was hoping to have leftovers for lunch today, but we um....ate them all. Oops! I would think this would work with chicken as well, but I used turkey like the recipe said. I will also use this dipping sauce for other things, such as my steamed dumplings! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Dipping Sauce:
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tsp sesame oil
1/4-1/2 tsp honey, to taste
1 scallion, chopped

Meatballs:
1 lb ground turkey
1 egg
1/4 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped
2 tbsp scallion, finely chopped
1 tbsp ginger, minced
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/4 cup of panko crumbs
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste

Directions:

Combine the soy sauce, lime juice, water,sesame oil, green onion, and honey together in a dish. Whisk until well combined; set aside. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Coat a baking dish with cooking spray. Combine the ground turkey, egg, green onion, cilantro, ginger, garlic, panko, soy sauce, sesame oil, sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste together in a large bowl. Gently mix the ingredients until well combined. Shape 1/4 cup of mixture into a ball then place into the baking dish. Repeat with the remaining meat mixture. Place the meatballs into the oven and bake until cooked through, about 15 minutes. Serve immediately along with the dipping sauce. Enjoy.

Lemon Herb European Plaice

Courtesy of Plated Perfection

Plaice is a white, flat fish which I keep seeing on sale at Harris Teeter. I had never heard of it, but decided it was time to try something new! I followed a similar method to cooking something like flounder or sole. This is a pretty basic recipe and can be prepared quickly, perfect for a week night meal!

Ingredients:
1 large filet of european plaice (mine was enough for 2 people)
2 tb butter, room temperature
1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped (1/2 for butter, 1/2 for fish)
1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped (1/2 for butter, 1/2 for fish)
1 tsp fresh parsley, chopped (1/2 for butter, 1/2 for fish)
1/2 lemon, zested
salt and pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking dish with foil. Spray with cooking spray (I use the olive oil kind). Set the fish in the dish and season with salt and pepper.  Mix the herbs with the butter. You may need to soften the butter to do this, but I find it's easy to just use a spoon to mash it all together once it's soft enough. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to harden a bit. Sprinkle half of the herbs over the fish, along with the lemon zest. Squeeze the zested half over the fish. Once the butter has hardened just a bit, put a few small pieces over the fish (I used 2-3 small pieces). Bake for approximately 12-15 minutes until flaky.

Pizza Rustica

Adapted from Giada de Laurentiis

This afternoon we got to go visit with our friends Zack and Risa, who had a precious baby boy earlier this month, Noble. I figured they could use a good home cooked meal, so I took them this Italian dish that I'd describe as comfort food, delicious, and super filling :) I added a little salami since I had some on hand. This is great for a group as well!

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 8 ounces hot Italian sausage, casings removed
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 (12-ounce) bunches fresh spinach, stemmed, coarsely chopped (about 12 cups), or 1 (10-ounce) package frozen cut-leaf spinach, thawed and drained
• 1 (15-ounce) container whole milk ricotta
• 12 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
• 4 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, coarsely chopped (I used 3 oz since I also used salami)
• 3 slices of hard salami, coarsely chopped
• 4 large egg yolks, beaten to blend
• 2 pie crusts (or your own pastry dough)
• 1 large egg, beaten to blend

Directions:
Position the rack on the bottom of the oven, and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a heavy large frying pan over medium heat. Add the sausages and saute until golden brown, breaking the sausage into pieces, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer the mixture to a small bowl and set aside to cool. Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of oil in the same frying pan over medium heat. Add the spinach and cook until the spinach wilts and the juices evaporate, stirring often, about 10 minutes. NOTE: If using frozen spinach, you could skip this step. Cool to room temperature. Squeeze the spinach to drain as much liquid as possible. Into a large bowl, add egg yolks and beat lightly. Stir in the ricotta, mozzarella, and 1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese. Add the sausage, the spinach and prosciutto to the mixture and stir to combine. Roll out larger piece of dough on a lightly floured work surface to a 17-inch round. Transfer the dough to a 9-inch springform pan. Trim the dough overhang to 1 inch. Spoon the ricotta mixture into the dough-lined pan. Roll out the remaining piece of dough into a 12-inch round. Place the dough over the filling. Pinch the edges of the doughs together to seal, then crimp the dough edges decoratively. Brush the beaten 1 large egg over the entire pastry top. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons Parmesan over the top. Bake on the bottom shelf until the crust is golden brown, about 1 hour. Let stand 15 minutes. Release the pan sides and transfer the pizza to a platter. Cut into wedges and serve.

Grilled Chimichurri Ribeye

Ribeye courtesy of Plated Perfection
Chimichurri courtesy of Bon Appetit

Steak on the grill is one of my favorite things. When we got the opportunity to grill out the other night, we took it! I decided to try something different and make a side of chimichurri sauce to go on the steak, just to change it up a little :) The sauce was also delicious on the grilled zucchini we made along side the steak. Ribeye is a great cut of meat to grill and this turned out so delicious and moist. I eyeballed the marinade for the steak, so just use your own judgement with how much you want to use.

Grilled Ribeye
Ingredients:
1 ribeye steak
3 tb Worcestershire sauce (approx.)
1 tb Montreal steak seasoning (approx.)

Directions:
Season both sides of the ribeye with the steak seasoning. Bring the steak to room temperature, about 30 minutes. Place in a ziploc bag and throw in the Worcestershire sauce. Seal and cover the steak with the sauce by massaging it around. Grill over medium high heat for approximately 5 minutes per side (I prefer mine medium). Top with the chimichurri sauce.

Chimichurri Sauce:
Ingredients: 
1 cup (packed) fresh Italian parsley
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup (packed) fresh cilantro
2 garlic cloves, peeled
3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Puree all ingredients in processor. Transfer to bowl. (Can be made 2 hours ahead. Cover and let stand at room temperature.) 

Grilled Zucchini

Courtesy of Plated Perfection

One thing I don't like about living in a high rise is that we can't have a nice grill on our balcony, but lucky for us, our friend Kim invited us over for a BBQ :) so we got to use her industrial grill in her complex! First order of business was grilled zucchini. Grilled ribeye can be found here. The zucchini came out delicious and healthy!

Ingredients:
2 large zucchini, sliced lengthwise
1/2 lime, juiced
1 tsp Italian seasoning
salt and pepper
drizzle of olive oil

Directions:
Place the zucchini in a large container so that can spread out. Top with olive oil, lime juice, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Mix together so that zucchini are coated. Grill over medium heat for approximately 5 minutes per side, depending on the size of the zucchini. Mine were rather large and I cut them somewhat on the thick side.