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Posts tagged ‘tomato’

May 13

8 Comments

Bruschetta Chicken Salad

2011-07-08 12.11.52

One of my favorite things that happens when I’m cooking is I tend to get inspired to create entirely different recipes using the ingredients or concepts that I am using at that given moment.  Am I making sense?  Let me explain a little further.

A couple of weeks ago, I was making tomato bruschetta for a dinner party we were having.  (Side note:  one of the best party foods ever, just FYI. ) I started daydreaming about how I could translate the exact same flavor experience into a salad with some tender protein on top.  Hence, this Bruschetta Chicken Salad was born!

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Apr 28

5 Comments

Portobello Eggs Benedict

2011-04-20 16.11.21

I try not to use the word “favorite” too liberally, but I am definitely going to say it here.  Eggs Benedict is (one of) my favorite breakfast or brunch foods of all time.

There are so many different styles and interpretations of this dish, but for me, there are two key things that make it great: an egg that has been poached to perfection and creamy, warm, lemony, homemade hollandaise sauce.  I am so fond of this dish that I made it on Valentine’s day to show my mom how much I love her… which is a whole lot.

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Apr 19

6 Comments

Whole Wheat Pasta Primavera

2011-06-18 12.06.38

Alright, this is starting to get a bit ridiculous.  It is 2/3 of the way through April and we’re currently getting snow in Minnesota!  This morning as I was digging my car out from where I parked it on the street last night, I thought about all of the unfortunate things happening in the world right now and put things into perspective.  If the biggest obstacle in my day is a few inches of snow in April, things are going pretty well :)

Rather than complain, I am going to just get over the whole thing and cook like it is Spring weather outside anyway. Maybe the more I cook with Spring ingredients, the more likely it is that the weather outside will start behaving a bit?  #wishfulthinking

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Apr 8

6 Comments

Traditional Hummus + Minty Tomato Salsa

2011-06-10 13.54.41

Hopefully now that Spring has arrived (kind 0f), everyone is starting to get in the mood to party a bit more.  Within my group of friends, we love to have dinner parties where everyone brings a few items that, when combined, create the perfectly themed meal.  It is so fun to experience all 8-12 of us pack into my retro little kitchen, everyone trying to prepare their dishes in time!

This weekend for our dinner get-together, I made a traditional hummus with minty tomato “salsa” on top.  I thought it was a perfect choice for a party because of the familiar taste of the hummus topped with some fresh flavors that reminded everyone of Spring.

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Apr 7

2 Comments

Garlic Tomato + Egg White Omelet

2011-06-11 12.03.53

I think that the omelet is one of the greatest concepts of all time.  There are so many different combinations of veggies, meats, cheeses, spices and herb that you can use to create the perfect egg pocket.

As someone who likes to eat eggs every morning for breakfast, occasionally I try to leave out the egg yolks to give my body a little break from the cholesterol.  Lots of professionals have different theories of how many egg yolks someone should consume in a week and I don’t really pay attention to any of them.  Rather, every once in a while when I feel like switching it up, I do!

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Mar 28

3 Comments

Crispy Eggplant + Mozzarella Melts

2011-05-06 12.16.35

This eggplant sat in my fridge for so long before I finally decided what I wanted to do with it but I’m not mad about that because this meal was well worth the wait.

I feel like eggplant is an ingredient that most people have never cooked with or have some serious misconceptions about, but I highly recommend opening your mind (and your mouth) to it.

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Mar 13

6 Comments

Simple Huevos Rancheros

2011-04-18 15.43.55

If you look around the web there are soooooo many recipes out there that offer different interpretations of this popular Mexican dish.  That’s quite appropriate because basically you only need 2 ingredients in order for something to be characterized as huevos rancheros – fried eggs and fried corn tortillas.  Aside from that, you can feel free to add lots of other things, so long as you get excited to eat it.

See as the dish gained popularity and spread beyond Mexico, new ingredients that are typical of other styles of cuisine started getting incorporated in preparing this dish.  When I make huevos, I like to make sure a few key ingredients are always present (avocado, fresh tomato, onion, cilantro) and then I get a little creative from there.

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Feb 18

1 Comment

Poached Egg Piperáde

2011-04-23 13.09.28

Piperáde is a style of cuisine typical of the Basque Country and its staple ingredients of onions, green peppers and tomatoes are said to mimic the red, green and white colors of the Basque Flag. There are a number of ways to interpret this style and combine the ingredients to make a variety of dishes.  I decided to play around and go the visual appealing route of thinly sliced peppers served underneath a sexy poached egg.

Can you tell that I like to eat food that is pretty?

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Feb 17

2 Comments

Upscale House Salad

2011-04-23 11.00.51

Last night my loves and I went out for a late dinner + drinks at a new restaurant to enjoy each others’ company until the early hours of the morning.  It was 9 pm and I wasn’t too hungry, but wanting to be a good patron, I ordered the House Salad w/ chicken and a Crispin Hard Cider (and another… and then a beer… but we won’t go there for the purposes of this post.)

It was the BEST house salad I’ve ever had because there were minor enhancements that made the salad so much more enjoyable.  Who knew that a traditionally boring house salad could actually be so delicious? It’s amazing how far a little attention to detail can go so I recreated something similar to enjoy again for lunch tomorrow.

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Feb 4

2 Comments

Scrambled Egg Breakfast Quesadilla

2011-04-08 10.06.41

This is an example of one of my many meal ideas that comes to life out of necessity, spontaneity and lack of time to run to the grocery store.  The other morning, it was definitely one of those”make what you can with what you’ve got in the fridge” moments but I still wanted to make something exquisite for my mom for breakfast.

This woman gave me life, after all.  The least I can do is cook her something delicious and beautiful to start out the day right.

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Jan 21

2 Comments

Quick Turkey Panini

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Yup we’re getting up close and personal with a hot sandwich, folks.

This sandwich isn’t just any old sandwich, however.  This sandwich was my lunch yesterday and it was what fueled me through a long, strenuous afternoon of watching championship football games.

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Jan 11

Herbed Egg Salad

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I LOVE putting eggs on salad for a number of reasons.  Mainly, I always like to have a protein component if I am eating a salad because it is the only possible way that a salad might have a chance of keeping me full for longer than 10 minutes. Also, I have never seen anyone else straight up cook an egg and put it on a salad and I want to share my trick with everyone!  Eggs are always around the house and take only minutes to cook in a skillet.

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