Fruit Smoothie

Sophia requested smoothies for breakfast. So I whipped up a strawberry-peach one that we shared. So yummy! I cut up last weeks remaining farmers market fruit and froze it rather than letting it go to waste. 

5 oz vanilla Greek yogurt
1/2 cup milk
tsp farmers market local honey 
whole banana
1 cup frozen fruit of your choice
I blended everything in my magic bullet until smooth.  

Garlic Shrimp in Tomato Sauce

I love shrimp and am always looking for new ways to cook them. This one in a tomato sauce was right up my alley! It included some of my favorite ingredients; garlic, capers and olives. Super quick and easy!

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/garlic-shrimp-in-tomato-sauce

Grilled steak with green beans and tomatoes with chimichurri sauce

Since it's summer I've been looking for more grilling recipes since its' too hot to cook.  Since I'm no grill master, I did all the prep work and gave Earl his cooking instructions.  And he killed it! The BBQ brought out this amazing smokey flavor in the green beans and tomatoes. They were still crispy but slightly charred. You can see how perfectly the steak was cooked. Then add in the chimichurri sauce.....out of this world. I also oven roasted some rosemary-yukon potatoes.  The potatoes became the vehicle to devour more of the chimichurri sauce once the steak was gone!

I liked the idea of this one but wasn't sold on the chimichurri recipe included.  

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/grilled-steak-with-green-beans-tomatoes-and-chimichurri-sauce-recipe/index.html

Use this chimichurri recipe!  I did cut the crushed red peppers down to 1 tsp. 

And am REALLY happy I did!!!  It would have been way too spicy for me. 

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/traditional-chimichurri

I have the remaining chimichurri in the fridge and am looking for ways to use it this week! I want to put it on EVERYTHING!!!! 

Beet Salad with Goat Cheese

Each week I see rows and rows of beautiful beets at the Farmers Market.  I decided it was time for me to bring some home. I remember HATING beets growing up. Then I realized I hated all vegetables growing up because they were from a can or frozen. Now that I cook with all fresh vegetables, I see what I was missing!!!

After cleaning, trimming and rubbing the beets with olive oil, I wrapped them individually in foil and baked them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 1 hour. Very similar to how you would do a baked potato. Once they felt soft I pulled them out, unwrapped them and let them cool. Once they were cool enough to handle, I pealed the skin off of each one just by rubbing them gently with a fork. I placed them in the fridge to chill for about an hour before slicing them.

I topped the salad with the beets, goat cheese, candied walnuts and a store bought strawberry vinaigrette. I could eat this salad, all day, everyday! Enjoy!!

Salted Caramel Butter Bars

A co-worker brought these in to work one day and I made him send me the recipe.  I will only be making these on a RARE occasion after seeing what goes into them. My heart stopped just looking at the recipe! But that didn't stop me from eating them. HA!

My bottom layer of dough was a bit overcooked and I'm not sure how to avoid that. I really cut back on the salt since I was using salted butter but I think I cut back too much to call them "salted". Overall, delicious and pretty simple to make!

http://cookiesandcups.com/dont-hate-me-because-im-butter-ful/

Spicy Sicilian Chicken

When I first started cooking, this was one of my favorite go to's. I decided to pull it back out and see if it was a good as I remembered. I think my skills have gotten so much better that this one came across as too bland.  I'll be making some tweaks to this recipe.  Thinking maybe an orange slice under the skin and creating a rub. It's still a great meal, just needs to be tweaked.....stay tuned.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/spicy-sicilian-chicken-recipe/index.html

Broiled Halibut with Ricotta-Pea Puree

Want to impress your friends? Whip up this baby and watch everyone be amazed at what a rockstar you are in the kitchen.  Super quick and easy and VERY TASTY. Best part, on the table in less than 30.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/broiled-halibut-with-ricotta-pea-puree-recipe/index.html

Sicilian Meatballs with Fresh Basil Marinara

I love meatballs and this recipe is a winner. I substituted the ground beef for ground turkey. Amazing!  I served with spaghetti and sauteed spinach.

http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/sicilian/meatballs/with/fresh/basil/marinara.aspx

We get down on the 4th of July!

The 4th of July is probably my favorite holiday. Mainly because of the food and I like to call it my pre-birthday party. Normally we'd do some ribs but decided to try chicken, homemade coleslaw and semi-homemade baked beans.

Chicken:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/the-ultimate-barbecued-chicken-recipe/index.html

The brine really helped keep the chicken moist but I wasn't very impressed with the BBQ sauce.  We also didn't move these to the oven. Earl moved them to the cooler side of the grill and kept a close eye on them until they were done. Over all, good flavor but I'd prefer some KC Masterpiece sauce on them next time! 

Coleslaw:

http://www.food.com/recipe/kfc-coleslaw-copycat-coleslaw-156331

When I think of what coleslaw should taste like, I think KFC. This recipe will not disappoint you! 

Baked Beans:

http://recipes.bushbeans.com/recipe/150637/better-baked-beans.aspx

Earl asked me to find a way to make the Bush's Baked beans better and what would you know, they had a recipe on their site! They were much better and even had my FIL, who hates onions, go back for 2nd's knowing there were onions in them. Yup, they were good and not much extra work.

We finished off this amazing meal with a fresh peach cobbler. It was my first time making one and it turned out GREAT! I ran to the farmers market and bought some fresh peaches for this beauty. 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/peach-cobbler-recipe/index.html

(Yes, I know we are all mad at Paula Deen but this recipe is on point.)

Had to serve it warm with some natural vanilla ice cream!!