Today I baked some very moist and flavorful chicken breasts. I rubbed them in butter, fresh garlic, thyme, oregano, salt, and pepper.
I baked covered for 40 minutes at 350 degrees and then took off the foil and broiled for 5-10 minutes until crispy.
Served over lettuces with some hot spinach and artichoke dip.
For lunch today I had some leftover taco meat (ground beef with lots of Mexican seasonings) on top of lettuce with kefir cheese and hemp hearts.
– Tracy
In my 6 years living in Pennsylvania, I never saw tri-tip anywhere until a few weeks ago when I finally spotted one at Trader Joes! I wish we had a barbecue to cook this thing, but since we didn’t we baked it.
We marinated it in worcestershire sauce, McCormicks Montreal Steak Seasoning, garlic power, oregano, cayenne pepper, salt, pepper, ground mustard.. and probably a few other spices.
We’ve made tri-tip twice already, the second one we cooked was thinner. I served this with mashed sweet potatoes and green beans. The mashed sweet potatoes were amazing!
Amazing Savory Mashed Sweet Potatoes (2 Servings)
1 large sweet potato (or two smaller)
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons cream cheese
1 teaspoon garlic power
salt and pepper
Peel and cut the sweet potato into cubes and microwave for 5 minutes. Test with fork to see if soft, then continue to microwave two minutes at a time until soft. Mash with fork (or blender) and then mix in all other ingredients. I think the garlic powder and cream cheese is really what made these potatoes amazing.
-Tracy
A few weeks ago we tried the cauliflower pizza crust, that wasn’t too bad, but it was a bit too cheesy and I had to eat it with a fork! I have seen a few variations of the almond crust online, so I decided to give that a try.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup almond flour
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese
1 egg
salt, pepper, and garlic powder
Mix together all the ingredients in a bowl and then press flat into a frying pan. I spread a little olive oil in the pan to make sure it didn’t stick. Set burner to a medium high heat. When the crust browns, flip to the other side.
When your crust is brown on both sides, top with sauce and any kind of pizza ingredients you like! Then bake at 450 or broil in the oven for a few minutes until the cheese melts.
This was a super easy pizza to make and the crust was pretty good! It was a little crunchy (which I like) and very sturdy. I think next time though I will add a little more sauce, because the crust seemed to suck up a lot of the moisture.
-Tracy
We have been eating a lot of sweet potato fries lately! We typically eat 1/2 – 1 sweet potato for 2 people. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but once you slice it up you’ll be surprised how many fries they make. One large sweet potato fills up a cookie sheet.
I add about 3 tbsp olive oil and seasoning (I used Steak and Shake seasoning salt). Then bake at 400 for about 15mins.
We ate the fries with leftover beef brisket and green beans.
Some other meals from recently, we had mahi mahi with quinoa, and I also tried Katie’s cauliflower pizza recipe.
I sauteed up some green bell pepper, onions, garlic, corn and sun dried tomatoes in butter, and then mixed in the cooked quinoa and seasoned with basil. We will definitely be making our quinoa like this next time, it was delicious!
Last Friday my BF was craving some glutenous pizza. So that I didn’t feel left out, I made myself a cauliflower pizza with pepperoni and pineapple toppings. I don’t even miss bready pizza!
– Tracy
I’ve been craving Indian food lately, so last weekend I decided to try to make some myself. And I must say…it came out pretty delicious! The Pioneer Woman’s recipe seemed the least complicated and didn’t require marinating the chicken overnight. I made a few tweaks to this recipe, but nothing major. Instead of chicken breasts I used thighs and substituted the rice for cauliflower rice.
Mmmmmm! I can’t wait to eat my leftovers.
-Katie
I found a recipe for baked shrimp on Pinterest. I usually don’t cook shrimp often, but this looked delicious.. shrimp swimming in tons of olive oil and butter!
I first heated the olive oil in the oven with lemon zest and fresh thyme, and then added the shrimp, butter, lemon slices, salt and pepper, and more fresh thyme and baked for about 10 minutes. You don’t need to use fresh spices, but ever since using fresh thyme in my chicken and wild rice soup a few months ago I have been in love with fresh thyme!
I served the shrimp on brown rice that I prepared with sun dried tomatoes, baby spinach, and more fresh thyme.
Original recipe:
http://www.cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.com/2011/04/roasted-lemon-garlic-herb-shrimp.html
– Tracy
Yesterday I tested out the cauliflower pizza crust I’ve been reading so much about. I had my doubts about it, but it turned out amazing! The crust had such a good consistency. It was crispy around the edges and you could pick up a slice without it falling apart.
Crust recipe:
1 cup cauliflower rice
1 cup mozzarella
1 egg
seasonings (oregano, garlic powder, salt)
To rice the cauliflower, I chopped it up into little chunks and tossed it in my food processor until it’s about the size of rice. If you do not have a food processor, you can use a grater. Put the cauliflower rice in a bowl and microwave it for 8 minutes. Do not add water!
Add a cup of mozzarella, beaten egg, and seasonings to the cauliflower rice. Stir it up. Put the dough onto a baking sheet and press it out into a 9inch circle. Make sure it’s not too thick. Also make sure to grease the pan down so it won’t stick. I brushed some olive oil on top of the crust as well to make it more crispy. Pop it in the oven at 450 degrees for around 15 minutes or golden brown.
This is what your finished crust will look like. Now top it with whatever you’d like! I put some sauce (tomato paste with a little water and seasonings), mozzarella, parmesan, bacon, and ham. Make sure to precook the toppings.
Pop the pizza bake in the oven on broil for 3-4 minutes until the cheese has melted. Enjoy!
-Katie
I bought some really nice flank steaks at Trader Joe’s yesterday. While I was there I saw that they have tri-tip steaks!! That is the first time I have seen that cut of meat for sale on this side of the country. I didn’t buy one, but now I know where to go when I need one!
I marinated the steaks for 6 hours in worcestershire sauce, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Then seared in a hot pan for 4 minutes on each side. It was a little too bloody, so after slicing I seared each slice again for about 30 seconds on each side.
Served ontop of iceberg lettuce and spinach with guacamole, salsa, and cilantro.
My Salsa Recipe
1. Roast the garlic in the tablespoon of olive oil on the stove for about 10 minutes. Keep the temperature around 1 or 2 so it doesn’t brown too fast. Burnt garlic is gross….
2. Dice peppers, onion, cilantro.
3. Throw all ingredients in a blender (including garlic and the olive oil from the pan) and blend until it is the consistency you like it.
– Tracy
I have lots of avocados that became ripe all at the same time, so I’ve been eating guacamole everyday. I made a very simple guacamole by mixing in a little basil infused olive oil, sea salt, and pepper. The hint of basil from the olive oil was kinda interesting..basil and avocado aren’t really paired very often.
Today I had pan-seared filet mignon with guacamole, green beans, and a clementine.
Post workout snack from a few days ago was guacamole and roast beef roll-ups and another clementine.
– Tracy
I picked up these nice swordfish steaks at Trader Joe’s. I rubbed them in a basil infused extra virgin olive oil that I got from my brother and sister-in-law for Christmas and seasoned with some cracked black pepper and Mediterranean sea salt. I baked uncovered for 15 minutes at 450 degrees.
Served with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar on the fish and a side of sauteed baby spinach in coconut oil and granny smith apple slices.
-Tracy
Tracy and Katie's Kitchen 