Green Goddess Bowl

For lunch right now, I am happily enjoying my leftovers from dinner last night. The Green Goddess Bowl is another Pinterest find that I'm eager to share with y'all! It's a flavorful, all-in-one meal, that I'm sure you'll all love.

Some of the ingredients are slightly different from what I typically have in my house (miso paste), while others are old standbys (frozen green peas and quinoa)

The below makes A LOT of food. Enough for 4 adults.

TIP: You may want to add more greens than what is listed below if you like more veggies.

INGREDIENTS

2 C Quinoa (this should be the whole box if you get the same brand I use - Ancient Harvest)

4 C Veggie Broth

1 1/2 C Extra Firm Tofu

1 C Broccoli

1 C Kale, chopped

1 C Green Peas (frozen is more than OK!)

1 Whole Citrus Fruit (I used Grapefruit)

1 Whole Avocado

Lemon juice (fresh if you can, but OK to use bottled)

4 Cloves Garlic

2 Tbsp Red Miso Paste (I found this in the refrigerated section at Whole Foods)

2 Tbsp Cooking Oil

Salt & Pepper to taste

METHOD

Step One. Prepare grains.

Cook quinoa. I used 4 cups of veggie broth in place of water.

Step Two. Saute greens & tofu.

Add greens and tofu to the ingredients below - sauté on med-high until tender:
2 Tbsp Red Miso Paste
1/4 C Lemon Juice
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 Tbsp Cooking Oil

2 Tbsp chopped garlic

Step Three. Fold:
Add to large bowl and fold together:
Quinoa
1/4 cup Lemon Juice
Your greens sauté

Step Four. Garnish:
1 avocado, sliced

1 large grapefruit, peeled and diced
Optional Garnishes:

Fresh green herb, chopped (parsley, basil, chives or cilantro)
1/2 cup red onion, diced

Step Five. Dress:
You can really dress this however you like. I opted for simplicity and just used more lemon juice. This has a Japanese flavor to it from the miso paste, so I would suggest you keep that in mind when making your dressing.

BBQ Chicken & Hasselback Potatoes

While killing time on Pinterest recently, I stumbled upon a beautiful potato! Hasselback Potatoes are artfully prepared, and when done, make such a simple food look so fancy. Of course, they are delicious too :)

I made these the other night, and served them alongside BBQ chicken/Naked Chik Cutlet. I also whipped up a delicious dipping sauce for the potatoes, using low-fat sour cream and shredded Mexican-mix cheese.

HASSELBACK POTATOES

Ingredients
2 Medium Size Potatoes
2 - 3 Cloves Garlic, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Butter
Sea Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Method
Preheat the oven to 425˚F. Put the potato on a chopping board, flat side down. Start from one end of the potato, cut almost all the way through, at about 3 to 4 mm intervals.

Arrange the potatoes in a baking tray and insert sliced garlic in between the slits. Scatter some slightly melted butter on top of each potato. Then drizzle the olive oil and sprinkle some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Bake the potatoes for about 40-60 minutes or until the potatoes turn crispy and the flesh is soft.

DIPPING SAUCE

Ingredients

4 Tbsp low-fat sour cream

2 Tbsp Mexican-mix shredded cheese (whatever you have on hand will work)

Method

Mix sour cream and cheese in a small ramekin. Place in microwave for 30-45 seconds. Mix thoroughly.

BBQ CHICKEN

Ingredients

1 Boneless chicken breast

1 Quorn Naked Chik Cutlet

1 1/2 C Stubbs Original BBQ sauce

2 Tbsp Honey

Method

Place protein in tupperware or ziplock baggie. Cover each with BBQ sauce and drizzle honey on top. Let marinate in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken in oven for 25 minutes, turning over mid-way through the cooking time.

Paula Deen's Southern Fried Chicken (or Tofu)

This was such a scrum-diddly-umptious dinner! We made fried chicken (and tofu!), per Paula Deen's recipe (with a few minor tweaks), and served it along-side mashed potatoes with gravy, and peas. Oh yeah, we invited Kim to dinner too :)

For obvious health reasons, this is not a meal we'll have often, but when we do have it we'll definitely enjoy it!

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup water
• About 1 cup hot red pepper sauce (we used Louisiana)
• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• House seasoning, recipe follows
• 1 chicken breast
• 4 slices of tofu, 3/4" thick
• Oil, for frying (I used veggie oil...bad, I know, but it works the best!)

Directions

In a medium size bowl, beat the eggs with the water. Add enough hot sauce so the egg mixture is bright orange. In another bowl, combine the flour and pepper. Season the tofu/chicken with the house seasoning, let marinate in refrigerator for at least 20 minutes. Dip the seasoned tofu/chicken in the egg, and then coat well in the flour mixture.

Heat the oil to 350 degrees F in a deep pot (I used a small saute pan, and covered it with an oil screen and it worked just fine). Do not fill the pot more than 1/2 full with oil (we did a very slight amount of oil - enough to get the tofu/chicken fried, but not so much that we felt guilty!)

Fry the tofu/chicken in the oil until brown and crisp. Dark meat takes longer then white meat. It should take dark meat about 13 to 14 minutes, white meat around 8 to 10 minutes.

House Seasoning:

• 1 cup salt (this is WAY too much salt - we used less than 1/2 C salt, and removed much of the seasoning before dipping the tofu/chicken into the egg mix. Had we prepared per these directions, it wouldn't have been edible)
• 1/4 cup black pepper
• 1/4 cup garlic powder
• *Leftover seasoning can be stored in an air-tight container for up to 6 months

Hello Dolly Bars

This recipe comes from The Complete Magnolia Bakery cookbook.  Chris gave it to me for Christmas, and so far every recipe I've made from it has been DELICIOUS!

I made these Hello Dolly bars yesterday and brought them over to Margie's house.  They are borderline addictive - perfectly chewy and buttery and totally indulgent. Yummy!

• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 2 cups coarsely chopped pecans
• 2 cups sweetened flaked coconut
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup butterscotch chips
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter , melted
• 21 ounces sweetened condensed milk (1 1/2 cans)

Preheat oven to 325°; lightly grease a 13x9 inch baking pan. 

In a large bowl, mix together the first 6 ingredients; transfer mixture to the prepared pan; pat down evenly with your hands. 

Pour the sweetened condensed milk over the top to cover, using a spatula to spread if necessary.

Bake 30-35 minutes or until lightly golden. 

Cool to room temperature, cover with plastic wrap and let set overnight before cutting and serving.