cook-eat-write

Good friend of many moons asked me to teach her a few kitchen tricks this evening so we had a bit of a ladies night in cooking session! We made Julia Child's Eggplant Pizzas and Chicken Parm Meatballs. Both came out quite DELISH and hopefully my friend feels like she learned something in the process!

Chicken Parm Meatballs - ground chicken, some breadcrumbs, garlic and onion, Parmesan, Italian spices, etc. Baked at 350 for 18 mins, topped with marinara and mozzarella and broiled for a few mins more.

For the Eggplant Pizzas we followed the classic Julia Child's recipe so that would be easy to google. I'd never made eggplant myself before so this was pretty fun! Came out pretty well though if I were to repeat I might try to find a way to keep the eggplant a little less mooshy for better textural diversity.

Grilled salmon with avocado salsa (salsa not pictured) and roasted balsamic green beans and mushrooms.

Popped a few items together for lunch this Christmas week!

Went to a White Elephant Party this weekend, made lots of snacks to share! Everything went over quite well.

Mushroom caps stuffed with bacon, Parmesan, spinach, garlic, breadcrumbs and more mushroom.

Skewers with grape tomatoes, salami, cheese tortellini, mozzarella, black and green olives.

Half a pecan glued to half a grape with a squidge (technical term) of goat cheese.

Mediterranean roasted baby yellow potatoes and organic chicken legs, balsamic glazed carrots.

Stuffed peppers, roasted cauliflower and pineapple!

So this week is steak which I grilled on my grill pan on the stove (seasoned with garlic, salt, pepper and a bit of Worcestershire sauce), Mac and Cheese and green beans. This got interesting because the Mac and Cheese recipe called for evaporated milk but all I had was sweetened condensed milk. As a result the Mac is a little sweet tasting but surprisingly not in a bad way! Who knew?

This week's breakfast is a pilsbury biscuit with an egg inside topped with some jalapeño jack cheese. Yum! Squish the biscuit flat and put it in a muffin tin to create a bowl for the egg. Crack the egg right into the biscuit or scramble it first if you'd like. Shred some cheese right on top and bake at 325 for about 15 mins or until the egg is set and the biscuit is golden brown. You can add anything else you'd like to this as well - chopped up bacon or sausage, veggies, etc. Very customizable.

Short work week - short ribs! Cooked up some short ribs in the crock pot this week for lunch. Mustard, garlic and salt for the first 6 hours and Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce for the last 2. A bit of extra sauce on the side along with oven roasted garlicky green beans and fresh pineapple.

Baked chicken meatballs with a light creamy tarragon sauce over rice, garlic and feta roasted asparagus.

Canadian bacon, (mostly whites) egg patty and a squirt of spicy mustard on a whole wheat English muffin. Healthy Breakfast of the Week 10/6-10/10