Mediterranean Couscous

I realized 2 things after my first week back at school, I despise anything math related and I always lose weight while I’m in school because I never have time to eat!  With a back-to-back class schedule and boat loads of homework I will sometimes go all day only eating an energy bar and large cappuccino (not a great thing for someone who loves food as much as I do!)

Needless to say when I got home from school today I had consumed a Trader Joes fruit and nut trail mix bar and a 7-eleven french vanilla cappuccino… and it was now 5:00 pm… I was very hungry and I needed something QUICK!! So today’s recipe was inspired by both what was in my pantry that I could make fast, as well as a recipe from one of my Food Network favorite’s Guy Fieri.

Couscous is a very quick cooking mediterranean grain and one of the healthiest grain-based products out there!  Low in fat, high in protein and lower on the glycemic index than pasta.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 tbsp Enzo olive oil (Meyer Lemon or original)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, drained
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup couscous
• 1/4 cup feta cheese (crumbled)

Begin by heating the olive oil in a medium skillet, next add the garlic and red pepper flakes, sauté for 1 minute.

Next, add the sun-dried tomatoes and sauté an additional minute.

Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil.

Add the couscous then remove the skillet from the heat and cover.

After 5 minutes remove the lid and fluff with a fork.

Now it’s time to add the cheese (my favorite part!) I used the mediterranean feta from Trader Joe’s which worked perfect for this recipe, but regular feta will work too!

Now toss together with salt and pepper to taste and you have a healthy, simple, delicious meal in about 10 minutes!

If you haven’t noticed yet most of my lunches do not involve meat, for 2 reasons, meat dishes usually take longer to cook and meat is expensive. My goal with lunch is creating something delicious, yet also quick and inexpensive!

Lemon Rosemary Chicken would be a delicious addition to this dish for dinner!

♣ Vegetarian Option: Use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock to make this dish vegetarian.

♦ Gluten Free Option: Substitute quinoa for couscous to make this dish gluten-free.

♥ All pottery seen on the littleleopardbook can be purchased by visiting www.longaberger.com/muffetbond or e-mailing keepsakebl@sbcglobal.net.

Adventures at the Farmers Market

So Heather Locklear may not actually shop at the same Farmers Market as me, but it is located on the street that made her famous, Melrose Place… yes, every Sunday morning (if you consider morning sometime between noon and 2:00) I strut on over to Melrose Place, yes I live walking distance to Melrose Place I am that cool, and to their lovely little Farmers Market!

And this is where I find all those fresh yummy fruits and veggies you see in my cooking posts!

After a few weeks of attending this little treasured Sunday ritual I now have my “spots”, like the Hummus people.  There are 2 vendors who sell hummus and each one is still vying for the #1 spot in my book… one has more flavors, but the other has amazing whole wheat pita bread, decisions, decisions, either way they are both delicious and if I miss a Sunday (heaven forbid!) I have to live without the amazingness of fresh hummus for a WHOLE WEEK!

My other favorite vendor sells purple potatoes, yup there it is again, my love for purple foods! I will admit this obsession began after watching an episode of Dr. Oz.  Probably seen the show 3 times in my life, all I know is he talks about poo a lot and I’d almost always rather be watching the food network than that guy! But I did stumble upon the show one day when he was talking about foods that provide lots of nutriton in your diet and I thought yes, something I can get behind!  So I tuned in and learned that, as I talked about in my post on What’s for Lunch?? Carmelized Beet and Feta Cheese Salad, purple foods are packed with antioxidants, great cancer fighters and heart disease preventors!  Obviously all of these things should appeal to well EVERYONE, so began my search for more and more purple foods and there they were at my little Melrose Place Farmers Market, purple potatoes! So fun to cook with, add so much color to whatever you are making and cook just like any other potato! Usually they’re just little guys, but this Sunday I found a couple baking size and put them to work quickly!

I feel like this would be something that kids would love and what a fun way to feed them something yummy and nutritious!!  You can fill up one of these guys with the same things you would a traditional baked potato, cheese, veggies, sour cream, bacon, whatever you like!

A new item I came across this Sunday was the “amazing mix”.  Well, the name pretty much says it all, who wouldn’t buy something that has amazing in the name??? So I did!

Usually my Sunday morning Farmers Market adventures are a bit more leasurely but this week it was about a billion degrees outside so to save the veggies from getting drinched in my sweat I rounded up all my treasures in about half an hour and headed home to assess my purchases. Bell peppers, onions, carrots, the usuals, and a couple little yellow summer squash to throw something different in the mix!

Chili-Lime-Garlic Grilled Shrimp

Yay!!  My first dinner post!! So unfortunately my roomie Nick is moving back to Boston on Tuesday, but fortunately that gave us a great excuse to plan a little going-away dinner for him this weekend that involved surf-and-turf!

Now if you would have asked me 5 years ago what surf-and-turf was I would have probably said some sort of exercise but after venturing in to the seafood world about 3 years ago… yes New Years Day 2009 was my first time to eat anything out of the water IN MY LIFE!  No salmon, no shrimp, no lobster, not even my favorite… crab until this fateful day in 2009! I don’t know how I lived before crab legs, lobster rolls and one of my favorite  things I’ve ever made… Chili-Lime-Garlic Grilled Shrimp!

Now there’s still that fishy (get it, fishy, haha) story out there that my parents always try to tell me about how I ate fish sticks from Hardee’s when I was about 9 years old because I thought they were chicken strips, but all the same, for the purpose of this post we’ll say my first fish experience was in 2009 (besides I don’t know if you can consider fish sticks from Hardee’s really fish!)

Back to the dinner…so, as soon as the boys (my two roommates) decided on surf-and-turf for dinner I knew I had to make these grilled shrimp.  I made them once before on Father’s Day this year and they were to-die-for!

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 15-20 large shrimp
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp chili powder
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 tsp olive oil

Place all of the above ingredients in a bowl and whisk together to combine.

Next add your shrimp and toss to coat.

Look at those little guys swimming around in that soy sauce, brown sugar, red chili pepper amazingness! Marinate for about 15 minutes then they’re ready to grill! Grill them up for about 3 minutes on each side.

They can also be grilled indoors in a cast iron skillet.

These little yummies are ready to come off the grill and get in my belly!

Now a surf-and-turf meal would not be complete without the turf so check out these amazing T-Bones that my roomie grilled up with just a little salt, pepper and olive oil, d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s!

Now throw in a scrumptious little salad of mixed greens topped with tomatoes, bleu cheese, red onions and chopped walnuts and you’ve got yourself some veggies in the mix!

I finished off the meal by throwing in the leftover creamy orzo from Wednesdays lunch with some crispy veggies and some grilled corn on the cob and we had a serious feast going on!

Look at Nick staring intently at those meaty hunks of steak anxiously awaiting their arrival in his mouth!!  And it’s finally time to put it all together and dig in!

♦ Gluten Free Option: Substitute Gluten-Free Soy Sauce.

♥ All pottery seen on the littleleopardbook can be purchased by visiting www.longaberger.com/muffetbond or e-mailing keepsakebl@sbcglobal.net.

Caramelized Beet and Feta Cheese Salad

So today’s lunch was inspired by what was in my refrigerator… beets!  Now usually I make a carmelized beet and goat cheese salad that involves arugula and avocado… but I don’t have goat cheese, arugula or avocado so what else do I have in here?  Well I have feta, that can replace the goat cheese, I have onions and tomatoes so here goes!

Ingredients: (Serves 1)

• 8 0z baby beets
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• salt
• pepper
• 2 tbsp feta cheese
• 1/2 tomato, chopped

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Line your baking sheet with foil then place the beets on top. As usual I purchase pre-steamed and peeled baby beets from Trader Joes, you can also find these at most grocery stores, if not buy fresh beets and peel and steam them yourself. Next, chop your onion and place on top of your beets, drizzle the beats and onions with your olive oil and balsamic, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Place in the pre-heated oven and set your timer for 6 minutes, toss, then let them caramelize for another 6 minutes and remove.

MMMmmmm, caramelized goodness of beets and onions!  And now you’re ready to assemble your salad. Place the caramelized beets and onions in the center of a place, top with your chopped tomatoes and feta cheese. I used mediterranean feta because that’s what was in my refrigerator, but plain feta would work also! I also drizzled a little balsamic vinaigrette dressing on top for a little extra flavor.

And the result was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S and healthy! Don’t even get me started on my purple food obsession, but beets pack tons of antioxidants, as well as betanin pigments which have been shown to lessen tumor cell growth, I’m sold!! And I’m sure after my super appetizing post, you are too!

♣ Vegetarian Option: This recipe is vegetarian

♦ Gluten Free Option: This recipe is gluten-free

♥ All pottery seen on the littleleopardbook can be purchased by visiting www.longaberger.com/muffetbond or e-mailing keepsakebl@sbcglobal.net.

Love for the Postman

Ding Dong! That middle of the afternoon sound that comes after hearing the loud screeching of a truck outside (be it USPS, FedEx or UPS, we’ll just call them all postmen) and the excitement of knowing a package is coming for me!!! I had that very excitement just yesterday when this little goodie arrived on my doorstep.

And from my favorite company…

Bam!  I know when its an arrival from the Longaberger Company it must be new pottery from Mom! If you hadn’t already noticed the lovely pottery used in my cooking blogs, go back and look right now, do it, it’s beautiful! My Mom has run her own business through the Longaberger Company for over 25 years now, although when I was a kid all they sold were baskets, ba hum bug, baskets were not my thing, but luckily 25 years later they now make beautiful pottery and I get to reap the rewards of having an amazing Mom (refer to “Team Mu-Ney”)who sends me the newest, fun dishes for my adventures in cooking! So whats in the box today??

After ravaging through piles of paper I find these little gems hidden in the bottom of the box!

Tapas Plates!!! So shiny and pretty! Oh the spanish tapas that will be served from these little guys, bacon wrapped dates, stuffed mushrooms, bite sized bruschetta, stuffed olives, oh I can’t wait!

If you want to get that mushy-lovey-dovey feeling for your postman maybe you should order your own magical box of goodies from Longaberger! Or maybe you just love my pretty little pottery and want some for yourself!  Or maybe, unlike me, baskets are your thing, they have plenty of those too, including the first basket my Mom sold me on to put in my own house…

Yeah, it doesn’t take much to sell me on anything Chargers or Sooners related, but if any of this entices you or you would just like to see my Mom in a picture with a bunch of grown men dressed as bees, check out www.longaberger.com/muffetbond!