Start your Winter day off right

In order to start your cold, blustery day off correctly a fulfilling breakfast is much needed. Eggs are a fantastic way to fill you up without a lot of calories or fat. Enjoy this simple yet mouth watering breakfast recipe.

Omelete

6 eggs
2 Tbsp milk
salt
pepper
3 English muffins
ground turkey
fresh berries
green onion
shiitake mushrooms

Slice disks out of the ground turkey and cook until juicy and slightly crisp. Chop up your green onions and shiitake mushrooms, add them to a pan on medium-low heat. Scramble the six eggs, whisk in milk, salt and pepper. Toast up the English muffins. Remove the onion-mushroom mixture and pour in 1/3 of the mixture, once the eggs start to solidifiy flip and add in onion-mushroom mixture plus shredded cheese. Flip one half over to create an omelette, leave for one minute then remove from heat.

Plate the omelete top with cheese and a few green onion slices with a side of turkey sausage, English muffins and berries. This meal will jumpstart your metabolism and give you energy to conquer the day!

Enjoy! xoxo Lo

Food for the Chilly Soul

During the winter season, I love to bake bread...as soon as they come out of the oven all steaming with deliciousness my soul is warmed. This sweet potato bread packs in nutrients and tons of flavors.

Sweet Potato Bread with Candied Orange Peel

2 1/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup water
2/3 cup oil (try grapeseed oil!)
4 eggs
1 sweet potato (shredded, skin on)
3 1/3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup nuts (pecans or walnuts)
2 Tbsp orange zest
1/2 cup orange peel

Pre heat oven to 350, meanwhile wash and shred your sweet potato. I leave the skin on because skins are packed with nutrients and you can't even tell they are in the bread. Put the shredded potato in a bowl and add in sugar, water, oil and eggs- mix together. Add dry ingredients and lastly add in nuts and orange zest. Save some nuts for the topping. Divide mixture between two, well greased/floured loaf pans and bake for an hour.

While the bread is baking make your candied orange peels.

Candied Orange Peel

1 full peel of one orange
2 1/4 cups water
1/4 cup sugar

Bowl 1/2 cup of water in a sauce pan. While the water is heating up slice your orange peel into thin strips. Once the water is in a rolling boil, add your peels. Keep in water for one minute, then drain (keep water if you want for marmalade!), repeat process four times (this process helps release all the bitterness out of the peels). Once you've finished the fourth boil, add 1/2 cup of water to the same sauce pan, bring to a boil. This time add the sugar and add the peels. Let simmer for 15 minutes, this helps the peels soak up the sugary goodness.

After time is up, remove the peels and let dry on parchment paper until the bread is ready to be served.

Once the bread is baked (always check with a knife or toothpick), let cool for 10 minutes. Use the orangey, sugar syrup and brush it across the tops of each loaf. Top with extra nuts and finally with the candied orange peels.

This bread makes an exceptional gift and is simply scrumptious! Warm up your family's or neighbor's soul this winter season and bake up a batch of this bread!

Enjoy! xoxo Lo

Holiday Dinner Party

During the winter time I love to bring all my favorite things together...food, family and holiday cheer. I love dinner parties, they are a fantastic way to create delicious foods and share them with those you love. Plus they are a perfect way to spend some quality time together.

The first thing you want to do is create your menu, which should be based on the season and to include foods that every guest will feel comfortable digging in to (aka know your crowd).

My dinner menu consisted of:

• Pumpkin-Cider Cocktail
• Winter lager (for the men)
• Brie en Croute with cranberries and walnuts
• Prosciutto Stuffed Figs Stuffed with Goat Cheese
• Acorn Squash Soup with Fresh Sage and Parmesan
• Arugula Salad with Dried Cranberries, Walnuts and Goat Cheese
• Savory Pumpkin Lasagna 
• Apple Tart

My menu consisted of ingredients I knew my guests would love, full of comfort, spirit of the season and a hint of culinary flair. 


Pumpkin Cider Cocktail

1 liter of apple cider (the good stuff)
1 liter of ginger ale
1 can pumpkin (or one cup of real pumpkin puree)
1/4 cup pumpkin pie spice (cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, sugar)
Add vodka, rum or bourbon to spike it up a bit

Mix all together, chill and serve with frozen cranberries as a garnish. Your guests will LOVE this cup of cheer.

Winter Lager

Our personal favorite is Shiner Cheer with hints of toasted pecans and peaches. When you set out drinks you wish to keep cold, put them in a nice bucket with ice instead of a cooler, it's much more becoming and easy for guests to see where the drinks are. 

Brie en Croute

1 medium-small wheel of brie
1 puff pastry
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
2 Tbsp agave nectar (or honey)
1 Tbsp brown sugar

First, pull your puff pastry out to thaw then mix your cranberries, nuts, agave nectar and brown sugar together. Make sure the filling has enough agave nectar. Cut the brie in half so you have two big flat pieces, spread 3/4 of the mixture in the middle, place one half on top. Wrap up your stuffed brie with the puff pastry, putting the wrapped side down. Put the other part of the mixture on top of the brie and bake at 350 degrees at 20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with water crackers.

Proscuitto-Stuffed Figs

16 small fresh figs
1 package of proscuitto
1/4 cup goat cheese
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp agave nectar (or honey)

Clean and wash all of your figs then gouge a small hole in each fig. Then grab a piping bag (or make your own with a plastic bag), soften your goat cheese and spoon into the piping bag. Stuff each fig with a generous squirt of goat cheese, then wrap each one with proscuitto. Drizzle with agave nectar mixed with the pumpkin pie spice and back for 12 minutes on 350. These will melt in your mouth!

Acorn Squash Soup

I have blogged about this one before and it was so good I had to make it again for my dinner party.

3 acorn squash (one half per person)
1 bunch of fresh sage
1 carton of chicken stock
3/4 cup heavy cream (or milk)
parmesan cheese
6 shallots
1 leek
bay leaf
olive oil
salt
pepper

Slice the acorn squash in half, slice up a few leaves of sage, a bit of leek, one shallot and place inside of each half. Drizzle with olive oil and a little shake of salt and pepper. Bake at 400 degrees for one hour until soft. While the squash are softening in the oven, slice the rest of the shallots and leek and place in a generous portion of olive oil in a Dutch oven on medium heat.

Once the shallot mixture gets golden add chicken stock and bay leaf.  Once the acorn squash is soft, remove from oven and let cool. Once cooled, peel off skin and dice into inch size pieces and add to soup. Blend soup with emulsion blender until smooth, add heavy cream, more leaves of fresh sage, salt, pepper and simmer for 15 more minutes then it's ready to serve. This velvety, savory soup is so comforting your guests will beg for the recipe.

Arugula Salad

I wanted the salad to be a palate cleanser before the main course, I made it pretty simple and the peppery arugula did the trick.

1 bunch of arugula
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup halved walnuts
3 Tbsp crumbled goat cheese

Lemon-Agave Dressing

juice from two lemons
1/4 cup agave nectar
salt
pepper
olive oil

Squeeze the lemon juice into a bowl, agave nectar, salt and pepper then whisk in the olive oil to taste.

For the salad simply assemble in a nice wooden bowl, layering the arugula, nuts, cranberries then top with the goat cheese. Let guests drizzle their dressing up their salad.

Pumpkin Lasagna

This lasagna is savory and fantastic for guests.

1 box of lasagna noodles (oven ready, wheat or regular)
1 can of pumpkin puree
1 package of sweet Italian sausage
1 yellow onion
1 package of fresh mozzarella
parmesan
fresh basil
1 zucchini
tomato sauce (homemade or jarred)
bechamel sauce
1 egg
salt
pepper
fresh sage

Dice up your onion and saute in a pan on medium heat, in a separate pan cook the sausage (out of the casing). Once onions and sausage are cooked, add tomato sauce and start on your bechamel. To make a bechamel sauce start with butter in a sauce pan on medium heat, when melted add a bay leaf then whisk in the milk until nice and thick. Set aside and make sure not to burn.

Mix pumpkin puree with the one egg and set aside. Slice up mozzarella into thick slices, chop up fresh basil, slice zucchini in small, thin slices and grate fresh parmesan. Choose a fancy 9x11 dish and start to layer. Start with tomato sauce at the bottom, then noodles, pumpkin sauce, bechamel, mozzarella, parmesan, basil, zucchini and sage. Then continue to layer until you've reached the top of the dish. Save enough tomato sauce, bechamel and cheeses for the very top. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. This lasagna perfectly balances the zesty tomato, heaviness of the pumpkin and lusciousness of the bechamel plus the buttery cheeses. Your company will definitely be wowed!

Apple Tart

6 granny smith apples
1 pie crust
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
apricot jam

Skin the apples and slice up into thin parts, toss in a bowl with apricot jam and spices. Then pile onto the crust which has been rolled out. Overlap parts of the crust onto the edges of the apples. Brush a bit of rum on top of the tart and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Serve with a scoop of pumpkin ice cream. This is an excellent way to end your meal, it is light, crunchy and the pumpkin ice cream makes everyone go back for more.

Enjoy this fantastic menu with your loved ones this holiday season!

xoxo Lo

Big fish in a little pond

With all the mix of chicken and beef sometimes it's nice to grub on some fresh seafood. One of my husband's favorites is fresh tuna steaks. Now you have to be cautious because tuna tend to be unusually high in mercury levels which in big doses can be toxic to our bodies. But if you shop for your seafood at a local market and they catch wild then you should be better off.

My favorite way to eat tuna steaks is rare, sashimi style with a wasabi-soy sauce drizzle but my husband likes his seared. So I decided to cook for my sweet husband that evening.

Tuna Steaks with Brussel Sprouts and Black Rice

1 tuna steak/person
1 package of brussel sprouts
1/2 yellow onion
1 garlic clove
1 1/2 cups of chicken stock
1/2 cup black rice
olive oil
salt
pepper

This is a pretty simple meal, you want to save the tuna til last. If you want to flash marinate that is great or else keep cool in the fridge. I drizzled mine with olive oil to keep it moist and sprinkled salt and pepper on each side and set back in the fridge.

Next, I sliced up my onion and garlic and added that to a saute pan on medium heat. Once they were golden I added the brussel sprouts. I had chicken stock in a small sauce pan awaiting a boil, once the liquid starts to bubble drizzle in 1/2 Tbsp of olive oil and the black rice, stir occasionally.

When the brussel sprouts start to soften and sear turn the heat down to keep them toasty. Continue to stir the rice, adding more chicken stock if needed. Sprinkle salt and pepper into the rice for additional flavor. Black rice is extremely nutritious and adds a lil depth to your dish.

Once the rice is practically finished heat your saute pan or grill pan, drizzle with olive oil and place your tuna steaks on the pan. Depending on how "done" you prefer your tuna to be, you really should only cook each side for about a minute. Usually tuna is best served with a nice sear on the outside and rarity on the inside.

Plate your dish and serve. This meal is packed with protein, omega-3s, healthy carbohydrates and will give you a great kick start to your week or weekend.

Enjoy! xoxo Lo

Acorn Squash Soup

Nothing is better than a hot bowl of comforting soup when the winds are chilly and the clouds unleash rain across the city.

I stumbled upon this recipe as I looked in my fridge and found an acorn squash, the only thing I had made before with this gorgeous ghourd was chutney but this time I wanted to make something good for the soul.

Acorn Squash Soup with Fresh Sage

1 acorn squash/2 people
1 yellow onion
1 leek
1 bunch of fresh sage
1 carton of chicken stock
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 garlic cloves
3 Tbs olive oil
1/2 cup milk (or heavy cream)
salt
pepper

I started as you would with any squash, you cut them in half de-seed them and place on a baking sheet. Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. While the oven is heating up, slice up some onions, garlic, bits of fresh sage and leeks place those inside of the hole of the squash and drizzle with olive oil. Place the squash in the oven for one hour to soften and bake.

While the squash is baking light your Dutch oven or soup pot on low heat, add olive oil and the rest of the onion, leeks, a few sage leaves and garlic. When they become golden (30 minutes) add chicken stock, salt and pepper. Once the squash is done, remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Once the squash are cooled pour the contents inside the squash into the pot. Strip off the squash skin, chop up into inch cubes and add to the pot. Raise the pot's temperature to medium heat and stir. After 15 minutes use your hand emulsion blender to blend the squash soup together. Be careful not to raise the blender above the soup, blend for 10 minutes until creamy and smooth. Then add your milk/heavy cream. Let the soup finish for five minutes then you are ready to serve.

Once you pour the incredible soup into your serving bowls, grate fresh parmesan cheese on top, sprinkle with salt and pepper and garnish with fresh sage leaves. This soup will knock your snuggie right off, it is down right delicious! Perfect for entertaining or as a quiet Sunday meal.

Enjoy! xoxo Lo

Campfire Cookin'

My husband and I went camping this weekend and realized that many people don't understand how delicious your meals can be cooked over an open-fire with a starry night while spending quality time with those you love.

Our first night we chose something pretty simple:

Beer Brats with Blue Corn Tortillas and Mustard

1 package of beer brats
1 package of tortillas
mustard

First you need hangers, sticks or some long fork skewers to fire roast the brats over the open flame. Once the brats are sizzling and brown you toast the tortillas and add the brat, squirt a lil mustard on top and ta da! Simple and delicious.

We spent that evening laughing and holding hands in the middle of the woods.

The next day we planned a big breakfast:

4 eggs
6 slices of thick-cut bacon
2 red potatoes
2 slices of toast (preferably homemade)

Firstly, when you are cooking while camping you want to start with the bacon because it naturally creates grease that you can use to cook everything else. Place bacon in the pot and set over the open flame, take one strip of bacon and slice it up into little pieces. Place these pieces into a separate pot with the chopped potatoes. Once the bacon is sizzled, remove from pot and add to a paper towel and crack the eggs into the greased pot. Once the potatoes are done, pile them into the serving bowls, add bacon on top. Place bread in a pocket of foil and toast on fire grate. Once the eggs are done place them on top of the bacon/potato pile and lastly grab your toast.

For dinner our last night camping we had to create something out of nothing, we had a backpacker's meal of freeze dried chicken and dumplings. Which didn't seem like enough so we had two red potatoes left, some bacon and some extra barbeque sauce. We decided to bake the potatoes, sizzle up the bacon and crumble it on top of the potatoes with barbeque sauce on top...that was a surprisingly, yummy side dish!

Use your imagination while camping, anything you want to have you can...you just have to be creative.

Enjoy life every moment at a time! xoxo Lo

Wowza White Chicken Chili

Now that the fall months are among us and colder weather has started to prance its way into the day...it is time for comforting, warm meals.

One of my family's absolute favorites is white chicken chili...for some reason I've never been a huge fan of regular ole joe red bean and beef chili. Maybe it's too filling, maybe it's too heavy but this particular type of chili is not only scrumptious but it is packed with healthy nutrients and not too heavy.

White Chicken Chili

4 chicken breasts (or thigh meat)
6 cans of Great Northern beans
1 package of chicken stock
3 celery stocks
2 medium yellow onions
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp oregano
1 bunch of cilantro
avocado
1/2 cup monterrey jack cheese

Grab your Dutch oven or stock pot and add 1 Tbsp of olive oil on medium heat, when the pot starts to sizzle add the chopped onion and chopped celery. Once the onion and celery turn golden add the chicken (cut into inch size pieces). After a few minutes add the beans and chicken stock. Stir and add the spices. After about 20 minutes taste and add more spices if necessary. Cook another 10 minutes then the magnificent chili is ready to serve!

Once you add the chili to the serving bowls, add sprigs of cilantro, chopped avocado and shredded Monterrey Jack cheese then take a bite and savor the explosion of fantastic flavors!

Enjoy! xoxo Lo