Crispy Italian Sausage with Warm Lentil Salad & Roasted Brussels

**Warning** This post does not have any pictures. Can you guess why? Is it:

A) Because Emily forgot to take any?
B) Because the meal was so delicious that she ran out of food to photograph?
C) Because Emily wants a fancy camera and is thus disenchanted with taking blog-related pictures?
D) All of the above.

This meal was amazing (PS- the answer was D...as in duh). AND, as we discovered after we finished eating...it was gluten-free! Not that either of us care...and not that the beer we were drinking with the meal was gluten-free...but still. AND, it's a Rachel Ray recipe...but don't let that stop you from trying it!

Crispy Sausage:

However many sausages you want
1 bottle good beer (an ale, preferably definitely)

Place sausages in a pan and cover with appx. 1/4 inch beer. Bring to a simmer and cook until beer dissolves and sausages are crispy on all sides (appx. 10 minutes)

Warm Lentil Salad:

1/2 lb. lentils, rinsed
1 bay leaf
1 small onion, halved
1/4 c. parsley
Salt
Pepper
1/4 c. Olive Oil (mine was infused with garlic)

Cover lentils, bay leaf and onion with water (2 inches above) in a pot. Bring to a boil and then simmer, uncovered, for about 15 minutes. Do NOT let them get too mushy. Drain, and combine with remaining ingredients.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts:

1 lb. brussels sprouts, cleaned and halved
1 apple, diced
4 slabs bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. maple syrup
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
Salt
Pepper

Preheat oven to 375 F. Combine brussels, apples and bacon. In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, syrup and vinegar. Combine with brussels mixture. Spread evenly on a sheet pan and liberally season with salt and pepper. Roast for 25 minutes, until golden brown.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

It's been, approximately, 10 years since my last post. I've been doing much more "studying" and less "baking" lately. This weekend was our first weekend at home for a month! We have been beaching, wedding, and Homecoming it up! We spent our weekend off catching up on our favorite shows, cleaning house, studying (guh), entertaining, praising, and (dun dun dun DUN!) cooking up a storm!

No really, we have so many leftovers. Please just come over and take things from our fridge. 

On Friday we mixed it up by added spinach to our normal Italian sausage and jalapeno pizza. Success! On Saturday my aunt and uncle came over for dinner and we made chicken stuffed with spinach, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives and Panko with homemade tomato sauce and brown rice. For dessert we had a blueberry ginger upside down cake. Absolute perfection.

Then today I finally made Chicken Tortilla soup! I've been wanting to make this Pioneer Woman recipe for a few months and I finally got around to it. Downside...the recipe said that it took almost 2 hours to make. I was not down with that. So, I made some changes and came up with this masterpiece.

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. each: garlic powder, chili powder, cumin, salt
1 red pepper, diced
1 small onion, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
3 garlic cloves, smashed
1 c. corn
1/4 c. green chilies
2 cans black beans, drained
32 oz. chicken stock
4 c. water
3 tbsp. tomato paste
3 tbsp. corn meal + water (to make a paste)
5 tortilla strips, cut into slices
Cilantro
Sour Cream
Cheddar
Salt
Pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Rub chicken breasts lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with spices. Bake for 25 minutes, until done. Shred and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp. oil in a soup pot over medium high heat. Saute pepper, onion, garlic until soft.

Add tomato, chili and corn. Saute 1 minute.

Add black beans, stock, water and tomato paste. Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer for 30 minutes.

Add chicken and corn meal mixture. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Add tortilla strips and turn off heat. Allow to sit for 5 minutes.

Top with cilantro, sour cream and cheddar. Season with salt and pepper as needed.

Banana Ginger Lassi

I, just, cannot use my blender enough lately. Maybe it's guilt from not using it enough during the summer, when smoothies, gazpacho and margaritas are more appropriate? Either way...I've been using it A LOT lately. My latest fave is the lassi, which is an Indian yogurt drink, similar to a smoothie (but thinner).

1 banana
1/2 c. greek yogurt
1 tbsp. yogurt
1 c. skim milk
1 inch grate ginger
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

Blend all ingredients until smooth. Serve chilled.

Crock Pot Mediterranean Chicken

I have been crock pot-ing it up this past week. We've just been super busy with work, getting ready for school, studying, hanging out with friends before the summer ends...the crock pot has really been a blessing this week.

This recipe is so easy that I'm kind of embarrassed to share it, but it turned out SO well, so I must.

Crock Pot Mediterranean Chicken

Ingredients:

2-3 chicken breasts
1/2 can crushed tomatoes
1 jar of drained artichoke hearts
1/2 c. green olives (or whatever olives you prefer)
Pepper

Directions:

Place all ingredients in crock pot. Set to LOW and cook for 7-8 hours. Serve over orzo. We also had a marinated tomato-cucumber salad with ours.

Note: This recipe does NOT need any added salt. The brine from the olives and the artichokes was enough.

Tomato-Cucumber Salad

Ingredients:

1 tomato, halved and cut into slices
1/2 cucumber, halved and cut into slices
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
1/4 c. olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a Ziploc bag, removing as much air as possible. Allow to marinate in the fridge overnight.

Crock Pot Jerk Chicken & Rice

How, how, HOW excited is everyone that The Pioneer Woman premiers this Saturday?!?


What? No one else cares? This isn't rocking anyone's world but mine? No one understands me...

Well, this post is in honor of the premier of my hero's show. It's a modified version of Tasty Kitchen's (the community blog associated with The Pioneer Woman) Jerk Chicken.








Crock Pot Jerk Chicken & Rice

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups brown rice
1 c. chicken stock
1 diced onion
3 diced green onions
3 crushed garlic cloves
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 c. olive oil
3/4 c. white vinegar
1/4 c. soy sauce
1 tbsp. allspice
1 tbsp. thyme
1 1/2 tsp cayenne
10 turns of black pepper
1 1/2 tsp sage
3/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp. sugar
2-3 chicken breasts

Mix all ingredients (other than chicken and rice) in a blender. Place a small amount of mixture on the bottom, layer on top rice and chicken, and then cover with the rest of the mixture. Cook in low for 8 hours or high for 5 hours.

Berry Dark Chocolate Smore's

I love my Bible study so much. Ok...this past summer it's really been less studying the Bible and more fellowshipping it up...but we're hitting the books hard next week. Promise.

Anyways, it's super fun to have a house now that they can come over to...and I usually try to have some sort of snack for them (in addition to wine...which we drink in solidarity with Christ-followers across the ages, as well as our fellow Jews, whom we love). One week, John made some really delicious chocolate chip cookies for the girls, and the past two weeks I've made smore's.

At first, they were just your basic, oven smores. But this past week I decided to class them up by making them with dark chocolate and smearing raspberry and strawberry preserves on the graham crackers. I SHOULD have taken a picture...but they were gone so fast that I didn't have time!

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place graham crack halves on a baking sheet covered in foil. Smear raspberry or strawberry preserves on the bottom half, topping with a dark chocolate square & a marshmallow. Bake for appx 10 minutes, or until the marshmallow has melted and the chocolate has begun to melt. Top with the second half of the graham cracker.

I think next time I'll try these with homemade marshmallows and drizzle them with a dark chocolate sauce and a raspberry or strawberry sauce.

Breakfast for Dinner

We like to have breakfast for dinner about once a week. I LOVE breakfast food...but I would much rather have it in the evening, when you have a lot of time to dedicate to cooking. So, this past week for breakfast/dinner, we had Squash Nestled Eggs, Maple Pepper Bacon, and the best French Toast recipe in the entire world (from America's Test Kitchen). Here are the recipes for the first two!

Squash Nestled Eggs:

3 summer squash

3 zucchini

1 small onion, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 jalepeno, minced

2 tbsp. olive oil

Salt

Pepper

6 eggs

Sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:

1) With a box grater, grate squash and zucchini. Place in colander and toss with salt. Allow to drain over sink for 30-40 minutes. Squeeze out the remaining water. Set aside.

2) In a large, ovenproof skillet, heat olive oil. Saute onion and jalepeno, then garlic. Add squash & zucchini and sauté for 7-8 minutes.

3) Preheat oven to 375 F.

4) Make 6 wells in the squash/zucchini. Make sure not to expose the bottom of the pan. Place a drop of olive oil in each well, and then crack 1 egg into each well. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and top with cheese. Cook in the oven to 10-12 minutes, depending on your egg preference (we like over easy).

Maple Pepper Bacon

1 lb. bacon

Good quality maple syrup

Fresh cracked black pepper

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 375 F.

2) Place a sheet of aluminum foil over a half sheet pan. Place a baking/cooling rack on top of pan. Lay bacon in a single layer on the rack.

3) Brush with maple syrup and sprinkle with pepper, then bake.

4) Every 5 minutes, flip the bacon and brush with syrup/sprinkle with pepper. Cook until done, about 35 minutes.