Root veggies

I don't think I've ever had beets in my life. While I was making this I even asked my mom and her answer was "Nope." I'm glad I tried them! This isn't something I'd want all the time, but it was good to change things up.

I also need to say, I love the bowl I put these in with some asparagus. It's perfect when you have a few different side dishes!

Prep

My favorite bowl!

All of dinner!

Root veggies-adapted from Meals Made Easy by Real Simple

Total time: 15 minutes

Serves 4

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• Bunch carrots, cut lengthwise into thin strips
• Bunch beets, cut into thin slices
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon dried tarragon

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-low heat. Add the carrots and beets and cook until tender, about 5 to 7 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and tarragon. 

Cottage pie

I don't know that I've ever truly had a shepard's pie. I worked for an Irish pub in college and we served it, but I never tried it. The meals always looked really good though. When I came across this recipe, I was excited to give it a try.

It wasn't anything spectacular, but was a very cozy food. I'd definitely call it a comfort food. I prepped it the night before, put it in the refrigerator then warmed it up instead of having to do everything the night of.

The original recipe calls for putting all the ingredients into four individual serving dishes. I definitely could've done this, however, since it's just me and Scott, I opted to make one big pan. Plus, I got to use one of my new Rachael Ray casserole dishes-isn't it awesome?!

Cottage pie-adapted from Dinner Tonight: Done! by Real Simple
Total time: 45 minutes
Serves 4

• 1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes (about 3), peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
• Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup carrots, diced

If you are assembling and cooking right away, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Otherwise, you can assemble these up to two days in advance, just add 10-15 minutes to the cook time.

Place the potatoes in a large pot filled with enough cold water to cover them. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are tender. Drain and return to the pot. Add the milk, butter and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and black pepper to taste. Mash to desired consistency.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the beef and cook until no longer pink, 5-6 minutes. Stir in ketchup, Worchestershire sauce, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Fold in carrots.

Transfer beef mixture to a baking dish (or individual baking dishes), and top with mashed potatoes. Baken until golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes.

Salsa Quesadillas

This is a very simple, quick recipe to make when you just don't feel like cooking. We have a quesadilla maker, so just put the ingredients together in there, however, I did put the recipe from the book that discusses how to make this in a skillet.

I do have to admit the absolute fail I did while making Scott's quesadilla. I definitely forgot to put the additional tortilla on top and closed the quesadilla maker. Let's just say, it was a mess to clean up. You could add additional ingredients or meats to this as you choose-really make it your own!

Salsa Quesadillas-adapted from Meals Made Easy by Real Simple
Total Time: 15 Minutes
Serves 2

• 4 8-inch tortillas
• 1 cup shredded taco cheese
• 8 ounce jar chunky store-bought salsa
• 1 green onion, sliced
• 1 teaspoon olive oil, per quesadilla

Lay one tortilla on a flat surface and place half the salsa, cheese and onion in the middle, leaving a 1-inch border. Place in quesadilla maker with second tortilla on top and cook for recommended cooking time.

If using a skillet, heat 1 teaspoon oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Place tortilla with ingredients on the skillet, with second tortilla covering. Cook about 2 minutes per side, or until cheese is melted and tortillas are golden and crisp.

Cut tortillas into slices and serve with sour cream, guacamole, or additional salsa.

Ginger Chocolate Chip Bars

I made these bars for Mother's Day (I know it's super late). They were really good! They tasted like chocolately gingerbread cookies...but in a bar-if that makes sense at all. They were very easy to make and will definitely be made again!

Ginger Chocolate Chip Bars-adapted from Real Simple
Total Time: 1 hour
Makes 24 bars

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 12 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking pan and line with two criss-crossed pieces of parchment paper. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda and salt. 

In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugars until fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla until well combined. Gradually add the flour mixture until just combined. Mix in the chocolate chips.

Spread the batter evenly in the pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center, about 40-50 minutes. Cool completely and then cut into bars.

This can also be frozen for later:

Instead of baking the batter, freeze it in the pan for up to 2 months. Bake as directed above

Roast Cod with Crisp Potatoes

The problem I always run into when baking a light-tasting fish, like cod, is that Scott says there's always not enough flavor to it. The same definitely happened in this recipe, unfortunately, and I even added a bunch of lemon pepper seasoning! I'd still make this again because it was really easy, and one whole meal in one which is always nice to not dirty 423,234 dishes every time you cook (which I definitely tend to do). I just need to make sure to add additional seasoning. I'm thinking some cayenne, red pepper flakes, and garlic possibly? Feel free to share your thoughts!

Also, I added in some carrots to the recipe below. I had some left over and they definitely baked well!

Roast Cod with Crisp Potatoes-adapted from Meals Made Easy by Real Simple
Total Time: 50 Minutes
Serves 4

• 1 1/2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, quartered (peeled, if desired)
• 4 large carrots, sliced
• 3 tablespoons, plus 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon lemon pepper
• 4 cod fillets

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Place the potatoes and carrots in a baking dish, drizzle with the 3 tablespoons oil and toss to coat. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper, and roast for 20 minutes. Stir and roast for 10 more minutes.

 

Meanwhile, season the cod fillets with the lemon pepper seasoning. After the 30 minutes of roasting, move the potatoes and carrots to the sides of the baking dish and place cod fillets in the center. Drizzle the remaining oil and roast about 10 minutes, until the fillets are cook through and flake easily.

Chicken with Mushroom Cream Sauce

I am absolutely in love with this chicken recipe! This is the first recipe Scott looked at me and said, 'This is restaurant quality chicken!' The flavors were amazing, and you know how much we love mushrooms! It was incredibly easy to make as well. The recipe calls for about 4 chicken breasts, but I only made it for the two of us and we ate all the mushrooms, no problem!

Chicken with Mushroom Cream Sauce-adapted from Dinner Tonight: Done! by Real Simple
Total Time 20 Minutes
Serves 4

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Seasoned salt and pepper to taste
• 4 chicken breasts
• 1 pound mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 ounces feta cheese

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with seasoned salt and pepper. Cook the chicken until golden brown, about 8 minutes, remove from skillet and set aside.

Add the mushrooms and remaining olive oil to the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally  until tender, about 4-5 minutes. Stir in the heavy cream and feta and season with seasoned salt and pepper. Serve over the chicken

Best of Heat's Kitchen-January 2013

The most viewed posts from January!

1. Feta Pasta Salad--a huge hit for gatherings! So delicious!

2. Scalloped Potatoes and Ham-When you want some comfort food, but don't want to stand over the stove or oven all day!

3. Switch up your plain ol' chicken breasts with Mushroom-Herb Chicken!

4. A great, simple, yummy egg bake! Cheesy Potato Breakfast Bake

5. Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes-To use up that extra buttermilk you have from some other recipe!

Best of Heat's Kitchen-November 2012

Here's the best of from the month of November! (sorry it's so late)

1. Lasagna-probably my favorite recipe to date!

2. Apple Scones

3.  Shrimp Bisque

4. Taco Pizza -yum!

5. Eclairs

Shrimp Bisque

This was a great flavorful tomato soup! We ate it with the Cheesy Breadsticks, and it was so good! I love shrimp, I just wish it wasn't so expensive to cook with! This soup is so quick and easy to make and it is absolutely delicious! Just make it! (PS...yes I did realize I ended each sentence with an exclamation point.)

Shrimp Bisque

Shrimp Bisque-Adapted from Real Simple's "Dinner Tonight? Done!"
Total Time: 20 Minutes
Serves 4

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 pound peeled, deveined shrimp
• 1 teaspoon seasoned pepper
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 2 tablespoons whiskey
• 2 cans tomato soup
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup shredded parmesan

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Toss the shrimp with pepper, garlic and salt until opaque throughout, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove to a plate.

Add the whiskey to the saucepan and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Add the soup and cream and simmer until thickened, 4 to 5 minutes. Add back shrimp until heated through. Top with cheese.

Peanut Chicken

This recipe was originally intended as an appetizer in skewer form, but I just made the chicken like a stir fry. And it was delicious! When I first told Scott I was making peanut chicken, he told me that if I could perfect it he would love me forever. And, even though he says he'd like "more peanut butter flavor" this was a great recipe!

Peanut Chicken-Adapted from Real Simple-Dinner Tonight? Done!
Total Time: 55 Minutes
Serves 4

• 3/4 cup salted roasted peanuts, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/2 teaspoon each kosher salt and black pepper
• 2 8-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut crosswise in thin strips

On a large plate, toss together the peanuts, bread crumbs, cilantro, and 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Coat each piece of chicken with the peanut mixture, pressing gently to help it adhere.

Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. In batches, cook the skewers until golden, 2 to 3 minutes per side, adding more oil to the skillet as necessary; transfer to a plate. Serve with rice.

Meatballs with Couscous and Feta

Scott and I have learned to love Greek inspired food. It's relatively healthy and with great flavors! These meatballs had an interesting flavor to them, and I honestly think I would try it again. The overall dish, was not quite as stellar. The lemon vinaigrette was almost overwhelming to the point of not being enjoyable anymore. Overall we'd give it a 2.5/5 for effort!

My lovely creations before going in the oven! 

The final product!

Meatballs with Couscous and Feta-adapted from RealSimple.com

Serves 4

Total Time: 25 Minutes

• 1 pound ground lamb or ground beef
• 1/4 cup dried apricots, finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 small red onion, half finely chopped, and half thinly sliced
• Kosher salt and pepper
• 1 cup couscous
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 plum tomatoes, sliced
• 1/2 english cucumber, halved and thinly sliced
• 4 ounce Feta cheese, crumbled

Heat broiler. In a medium bowl, combine beef, apricots, coriander, chopped red onion, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. 

Form the meat into 1 1/2 inch balls and place on broil proof baking sheet. Broil until cooked through, 6-8 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the couscous in a bowl. Add one cup hot water, cover, and let sit for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.

In a small bowl, mix together oil, lemon juice, and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper.

Serve the meatballs with couscous, tomatoes, cucumber, onions, and feta. Sprinkle with dressing.