Light Balsamic and Tomato Bruschetta! Snappetizer!

It's a snack, its an appetizer, its a side dish! It's whatever you want it to be... but it is SOOO good! And.. you know the next part... its healthy too!

The only recipe on this blog easier than this one are the 3 ingredient cookies! Here we go, you ready?

Ingredients:

1 baguette of french, sourdough, or whatever else you can find that you prefer 

(Trader Joe's has good options!)

8 roma tomatoes

1 t Olive Oil

1 T Balsamic Vinegar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

3-4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed

1/3 cup fresh basil, chopped

1/4 cup shaved or grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Bring a medium sized pot to a rolling boil. Remove from heat and immediately drop tomatoes in the hot water. Let sit for 1 minute, then drain immediately. (This will enable you to peel the skin RIGHT off, but won't cook the actual tomato). In the photo below, you can see the peeled ones compared to the skin-on.

 2.  At this point, you will want to slice each tomato in half, juice and de-seed it, and then finely, and I do mean FINELY chop them up!

3. In a small bowl, combine the tomato, the oil and vinegar, the salt and pepper, cheese and basil, and the garlic. Mix and refrigerate until ready to serve. (Making the topping a day or two ahead of time would only ENHANCE the flavor and taste of this dish!)

4. Next, slice your baguette on a diagonal making each slice about 1/2 inch to 1 inch thick. Spray a baking sheet with oil and lay the bread in a single layer on the pan, then flip them, so the top of each slice is oil side up!

5.  Bake these at 475 for about 1-2 minutes (Or until edges start to brown) and then flip them and back 1-2 additional minutes.

6. You can either top each slice and serve, or you can put the bread in a basket and let your famliy/friends/guests dress their own slices! I topped mine myself!

You'll want to serve them immediately as the warmth of the bread is a beautiful contrast to the coolness of the tomato topping!

I cannot communicate how delightful these were. Everyone enjoyed them when I served them!

Try them! You have nothing to lose, and EVERYTHING to gain! Enjoy :) 

Good Old Fashioned BBQ SECRET Sauce

I recently discovered this awesome BBQ sauce over labor day, thanks to my mother-in-law, or as I prefer to call her, MOG (Mother of the Groom!) I went nuts over it and called her once I got back home to get the recipe! It's so easy, but so great! I just want to make this stuff in bulk and store it somehow. That really isn't necessary, but you get the idea!

Put it on chicken, sausage, you name it! You'll love it! I promise :) We did chicken this week!

Ingredients:

1 small onion chopped

1/4 cup oil

1 cup ketchup

2 T mustard

2 T Worcestershire Sauce

2 T sugar

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Directions:

Saute your onion in the oil until soft.

Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes.

After letting this cool about 10 minutes, I dumped it all over our chicken breasts. You could refrigerate it for later use if you want!

Just a quick shot of these bbq beauties on the grill

Is your mouth watering yet?

Enjoy these :) Thanks Moet for this awesome recipe. Not sure mine was as good as yours but i tried!

Let's all say farewell to summer with STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE!

I have been wanting to make an easy and healthy strawberry shortcake for awhile now. I finally did it! I hope you will try it! But hurry! These strawberries won't be in season much longer, if at all!!

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour

1 t. baking powder

2 eggs

1/2 cup honey

1/3 cup oil (or applesauce which yields a sponge-like cake)

1 t. vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk

4-5 cups fresh sliced strawberries

Light Cool Whip OR Vanilla Yogurt

Directions:

1. Mix together flour and baking powder. 

2. Add in eggs, honey, oil vanilla, and milk. Stir well and then pour into a greased 8X8 baking dish. 

3. Bake for 20-25 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean!

4. Allow cake to cool to room temperature (half an hour or so). See how sponge-like this is? I used applesauce!

5. Top with cool whip or yogurt and then strawberries

6. Serve it up and enjoy :)

 

 

Inside out Feta Cheese Burgers!

Quite a tasty little treat these were! Change it up by using lean ground beef, ground turkey, or ground chicken. Any of them would work beautifully as the meat for this stuffed burger!

These are so easy to throw together! I have lately become a rather lazy cook and seek out those kinds of meals. After a full day of work, sometimes I just can't muster up enough energy to do a 5 star meal. Anyways, lets get to it!

Ingredients AND Directions:

 

Part One: For the Salsa Topping

3 roma tomatoes, diced

2 tablespoons of sweet onion, diced

2 t fresh chopped oregano

2 T red wine vinegar

1/2 tsp salt 

Mix all ingredients together and let sit at room temperature until burgers are ready.

Part Two: For the Filling

1 cup feta cheese, crumbled

Zest of 1 lemon

1 tsp fresh chopped oregano

A small handful of sun-dried tomatoes 

A small handful of sliced black olives

1 tsp Olive Oil

Mash all ingredients together with a fork.

For the Meat

1-2 pounds of ground meat (I only used 1 pound, but had enough filling for 2 pounds!)

1 T Garlic Pepper

Mix garlic pepper into meat and then form into 4-8 balls, depending on amount of meat. You have 2 options at this point. Mix a little topping throughout each ball and then form into patties. OR. Press your thumb into the middle of each ball and place about a tablespoon of filling in each hole.

Cover holes and form into patties

I went with option 2, but i think option one would give you move flavor throughout the entire burger.

Throw these guys on the grill until cooked though (Juices run clear)

Serve topped with salsa! You can serve these on buns/sandwich flats etc. I personally think they would taste great with a shmear of hummus on them as well!

Here they are:

Enjoy :) And feel free to leave out any of the stuffing if you aren't a fan! Take out the olives if you aren't a fan! Very versatile stuffing!

Feed you for Weeks SLOW COOKED MINESTRONE SOUP!

I chose the title of this post for a reason. It's an obvious one. This soup will literally last you for weeks. You can freeze it in bulk, or individual portions to get out one at a time! This is a slow cooker soup which is so great to come home to after a work day. Not only is dinner ready, but your house will smell delightful!

For those of you who don't want soup to last you through the winter, just half the recipe. However, I don't think you'll be sorry for having a plethora of leftover soup!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup dry elbow macaroni (whole wheat if you can)

2 quarts chicken broth

2 large onions, diced

2 carrots, sliced

half a head of cabbage, shredded

1/2 cup celery, diced

1-lb can tomatoes

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1 T minced parsley

1/4 cup each frozen corn, peas, and lima beans (or 3/4 cup of frozen mixed veggies of your choice)

1/4 tsp pepper

Grated parmesan or romano cheese for "topping" soup at the end

Directions:

1. Precook your macaroni according to the box/package and refrigerate while the rest cooks

2. Combine all ingredients except macaroni and cheese in your crock pot/slow cooker.

3. Cover, and cook on low 8 hours. Add macaroni to pot when you get home and cook an additional 10-20 minutes to heat through

4. Garnish individual bowls with cheese and serve!

Funny story. I asked my sweet husband to throw the refrigerated noodles in the crock pot because he was going to beat me home from work. He ended up throwing the remaining BOX of uncooked noodles in the pot.... perhaps that's why ours served 12??? Either way, the noodles only took about half an hour to soften up and we enjoyed it all the same!

Slice up a fresh baguette and serve alongside your soup! Enjoy :)