cauliflower tacos!

cauliflower tacos. sounds crazy, right? they're not. they're delicious.

the recipe is from here. 

Makes: 8 tacos, 4 generous servings of 2 per person, or 8 moderate servings.

Roasted Cauliflower  

• 1 medium head cauliflower, separated into florets
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Crispy Chick Peas  

• 1 15-ounce can chick peas (garbanzo beans), drained, rinsed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon ground oregano

Cilantro-Pepita Pesto  

• 2 cups fresh cilantro leaves
• 1/3 cup pepitas (toasted pumpkin seeds)
• 1 very small clove garlic, cut in half
• 2 tablespoons chopped jalapeño chiles
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Tortillas  

• 8 gluten-free white corn tortillas, heated as directed on package

Heat oven to 425° F.

Place cauliflower florets in large bowl. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons oil; sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir until evenly coated. Arrange on large cookie sheet. Bake 15 minutes; stir. Bake 15 to 20 minutes longer or until cauliflower is tender and browned.

Meanwhile, mix crispy chick peas ingredients. Spread on 15x10x1-inch pan. Bake 15 minutes; stir. Bake 10 to 15 minutes longer or until chick peas are slightly browned and crispy.

Meanwhile, in food processor, place all pesto ingredients except oil. Cover; process using quick on-and-off motions. With food processor running, slowly drizzle in 1/4 cup oil through feed tube, stopping halfway through to stir mixture with spatula. Remove pesto to small bowl.

Spoon about 1 tablespoon pesto on each tortilla; top with about 1/2 cup roasted cauliflower and 1 tablespoon crispy chick peas. Garnish with fresh cilantro, if desired. Serve with remaining chickpeas.

UPDATE: I generally add a little LESS SALT than called for. We also top these tacos with pico de gallo.

oreo brownies (cookies and cream!)

i don't often post about desserts because, well, i don't often make desserts. but we were invited over to friends' for dinner and i was put in charge of sweets.

our hosts told us they'd be making mexican for dinner and i'll be honest: my first inkling was to make some margarita cupcakes. ESPECIALLY because i had just seen them featured on katie's blog and they looked delicious. the problem as you might expect was the tequila. many recipes have you brush on tequila to the baked cupcakes, leaving all that boozy goodness full-strength. what's more is that the reviews often say that you're left with a lime cupcake when you leave the tequila out. being six months pregnant, i figured i should go with an alternative. 

so then i thought, who doesn't love brownies and oreos? and who doesn't love a cheater recipe?!

first up, the ingredients:

1 box packaged brownie mix
all the stuff the brownie mix says you'll need (generally egg, water, oil)
a package of oreos
buttercream frosting (you can make your own, but this is a cheater recipe so i bought mine)

i went with good ol' betty crocker (she's always been a winner in my book)

next, mix up all the brownie ingredients.

put about half the package of oreos into a ziplock back and crush 'em up. then, add them to your brownie mix.

spread into a non-stick pan (i used 9x9) and bake according to the directions on the box.

once the brownies have cooled, you can do lots of things with them. i used a cup to cut circular brownies and topped them with icing, some oreo crumbs and a full oreo, but you can really do whatever you'd like. i think the finished product is cute, but the best part is that it's TASTY!

ENJOY!

california chicken

you'd think since i've been away from this blog for so long that i'd come up with a truly fantastic feast to serve as my "I'M BACK" post. alas, i have only this easy (but yummy!) chicken recipe. it has avocado, therefore it MUST be californian.

so here we go. the ingredients:

2 chicken breasts
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 avocado - peeled, pitted, sliced
1 ripe tomato
monterey jack cheese, for topping

what you do: preheat the oven to it's broil setting on high. heat the oil on a grill pan and add the onion powder. a skillet will work also, but here's what i use:

add the chicken and cook about 7 minutes per side until chicken is browned and almost done. remove chicken and place on a cookie sheet. top each chicken breast with a few slices of tomato and a few slices of the cheese. place under the broiler until cheese is bubbly and browning. top with slices of avocado. 

i served this with fine green beans (just steamed) and a baked sweet potato. 

chicken spinach rice gratin

i go to class on wednesday evenings. the class is from 6:30 to 8:30pm and more wednesdays than not, dave walks in the door from work right as i'm running out of it. on tuesdays i plan ahead so that he doesn't have to fend for himself for dinner. leftovers are key - for both of us. i usually end up grabbing a bite at 9 when i get home.

i tried my second recipe from 101cookbooks yesterday, and again i was thrilled with the results.  the original recipe is vegetarian and is called just spinach rice gratin. it's a nice name, i think: spinach rice gratin. it makes it sound glamorous to my ears and better than what it could be called: spinach rice casserole.

there are several things about this dish that i love. for one, it's really very easy and i imagine difficult to mess up. two, it has a ton of spinach in it so it feels like you're eating naughty starches but you're getting leafy greens, too. and three, despite its name it doesn't actually have all that much cheese in it (while still tasting cheesy).

here's how to make it (my way):

ingredients:
2 chicken breasts
3/4 cup white rice
3/4 cup brown rice
2 cups finely chopped fresh spinach
1/2 cup shredded parmesan
1 small red onion, diced
1/3 cup sliced almonds or pine nuts (or a combination of both)
2 tablespoons olive oil

3 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt
a sprinkling of shredded mozzarella (optional - for the topping)

what to do:

preheat the oven to 400F or 200C. lightly grease a baking dish with olive oil.

combine the white and brown rice and rinse thoroughly. put into a medium pan and add 3 cups of water. bring to a boil, then simmer for approximately 15 minutes until water is absorbed. let sit, uncovered to bring the temperature down. stir occasionally to let out steam.

meanwhile, saute chicken breasts (or boil, use leftovers, whatever you have) until they're cooked through and chop into small pieces.

in a large bowl, combine the rice, spinach, and chicken. next, stir in the red onion, almonds/pine nuts and olive oil (leave a bit of the onion and pine nuts for garnish). stir in a bit more than half of the cheese you have (saving a bit for the top). in a separate small bowl, whisk together the eggs and salt. fold the egg mixture into the rice mixture, transfer everything into a baking dish and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

bake for 30 minutes or until the casserole is set. enjoy!

grilled veggie gnocchi

i'm trying to be much better with leftovers. i don't often make enough at one meal to last another, but sometimes i have pieces of a meal left over that get stuck in the fridge. wasting less food is at the top of my kitchen priority list right now. for one, it's expensive to throw away all that yummiess and two, why would we throw away yumminess?!

after our meal the other night of grilled chicken and vegetables, we had a fair amount of veggies left over (by design, this time). i find that leftover grilled vegetables are fabulous. sometimes we put them over pasta, in quesadillas, on sandwiches, on a pizza, on their own - they're very versatile.

i decided to try something new this time.  dave's had this thing for gnocchi recently, so i decided to give it a whirl. i didn't even make my own - this was the easiest dinner ever. i boiled the gnocchi* per the instructions on the package, added just enough roasted vegetable tomato sauce (store-bought!) to coat, and piled veggies on top. we topped everything with some freshly grated parmesan cheese and let me tell you - DELISH!

*the gnocchi we get at one of our grocery stores is gluten-free. the gnocchi that is available at the other two supermarkets is most definitely NOT gluten-free to be sure to check your packaging!

hello, spring! let's grill!

in honor of the beautiful weather we've been having, we broke out the grill the other night for the first time this season. you could argue, of course, that you could use the grill year-round, but there's something about leaving the door to the backyard open as we wander in and out to check on things. i also love that since it's finally light out for more than 5 hours a day, we don't need to grill our food by artificial light.

one of our favorite things to grill up is a whole bunch of veggies that we then cut up and make a 'salad' out of. we usually add onions, peppers, zucchini, corn on the cob, and often asparagus and eggplant.  we had all but the last two this time.

we also grilled up some chicken breasts and we marinated everything in the same stuff: a combination of olive oil, honey, lemon juice, tabasco sauce, red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper and of course salt and pepper. YUM.

leftovers!

i had some leftover broccoli pesto and fire chili from the double broccoli quinoa i made and i wanted to use it up. i wanted to throw together something quick so i sauteed up a bunch of veggies (onions, peppers, zucchini, snow and sugar snap peas - anything would have worked), boiled some gluten-free pasta, and mixed everything together with some of the pesto. we topped it with fresh mozzarella cheese and fire oil. delish! i also think this would be really good with some grilled chicken on top!