Lemon “Caesar” Salad with Homemade Croutons
Posted: August 1, 2012 Filed under: sides recipes | Tags: caesar salad, croutons, food, lemon, lemon caesar salad with homemade croutons, Recipe, Salad, sides 2 Comments »
lemon caesar salad with homemade croutons
Meet the faux Caesar.
Just as yummy as the original and equally delicious and sans anchovies! This has quite possibly become my new favorite citrus based salad dressing. It’s all lemony goodness, so if you love lemons then this is the dressing for you! And the croutons…OMG why didn’t I make an extra batch to munch on??!
This is such a great, quick, and easy way to make homemade croutons without touching the oven!
And look how crisp and golden they turned out just from a few minutes on a hot skillet!
Only 4 ingredients for the dressing…Dijon mustard, olive oil, garlic, and fresh cracked black pepper! I omitted the Parmesan cheese to keep the extra unwanted calories at bay :)
Do you have any favorite salads for me to try? Feel free to link to it in the comments below :)
Hope you’re having a wonderful Wednesday!
xoxo, kat
Lemon Caesar Salad with Homemade Croutons (via Spoon)
- 1 bag of Caesar salad mix
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 garlic cloves, pressed
- juice from half a lemon
- freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
- 4 tablespoons of olive oil, plus more for croutons
Directions:
to make croutons…
- To make the croutons, add about a tablespoon of olive oil to a frying pan and heat over a medium flame. Tear or chop the stale bread into inch pieces and toss into the pan.
- Toast until golden, tossing occasionally, about 3-4 minutes. Let cool on a paper towel, and toss lightly with salt. Store in an airtight container once cooled for future use.
to make dressing…
- In a small bowl, combine the Dijon mustard, pressed garlic, lemon juice, and freshly cracked pepper.
- While stirring continuously, drizzle the olive oil in until the dressing is emulsified and is tasty, about 3-4 tablespoons of oil.
- Add more pepper, and a bit of salt if desired. Don’t worry if the dressing breaks (oil separates.) Simply whisk it back together and add a dash more mustard or lemon juice however, chances are no one will notice a broken dressing. Store leftover dressing in an airtight container in the refrigerator for future use.
Funfetti Pancakes
Posted: July 26, 2012 Filed under: breakfast recipes | Tags: Breakfast, food, funfetti pancakes, menu, Pancake, Recipe, sprinkles 1 Comment »
photo weheartit.com
In my perfect world, every breakfast item, dessert, treat, candy, anything (and everything!) would be covered in sprinkles!
I love to add bright sprinkles in anything that’s edibility possible, sooooo why not pancakes??
It’s such a cute way to jazz up boring pancakes! For breakfast duty, I made the pancakes and eggs and he made chilaquiles :)
Hope you’re having a wonderful morning, xoxo kat
What do you like to add sprinkles in? :)
Funfetti Pancakes
- Trader Joe’s pancake mix
- giant handful of sprinkles!
Directions:
- Make pancake batter according to the directions on your pre-made mix.
- Dump a bottle of sprinkles into the pancake batter.
- Cook pancakes and eat immediately!
Related articles
- speaking of funfetti… (shecooksandheeats.wordpress.com)
Chicken Enchilada Nachos
Posted: July 17, 2012 Filed under: meat recipes, sides recipes | Tags: appetizers, chicken, chicken enchilada nachos, enchiladas, food, nachos, Recipe, yard house 12 Comments »
chicken enchilada nachos
The inspiration for these nachos actually came from Yard House. I would have to say that Yard House and Chili’s (endless chips and salsa + margs! = the best!) are two of my favorite places for happy hour! My favorite shareable munchies from Yard House are their chicken nachos. If anyone knows the recipe for their chicken nachos, please please please let me know!
I tried re-creating it but it kind of just became my own strange concoction… This is so simple and a great last-minute make for emergencies!
Balsamic-Garlic Crusted Roasted Pork Tenderloin
Posted: October 27, 2011 Filed under: meat recipes | Tags: balsamic garlic crusted pork tenderloin, food, Meat, menu, pig, pork, pork tenderloin, Recipe, roasted pork 6 Comments »
balsamic-garlic crusted roast pork tenderloin
The roasted pork tenderloin that I’ve been talking about for ages is finally here. Ahhh, I can’t even contain my excitement! Oh my goodness, it feels like I haven’t done a recipe post in so long!
I found this recipe on Kitchen Confidante via Pinterest last weekend and just had to make it for date night. In my opinion, this is the perfect recipe for someone like me that hardly cooks any meat because it’s very simple, the ingredients are basic and accessible, and most importantly…it’s foolproof! You really can’t mess this up, especially if you have a trusty meat thermometer at hand.
Although the meat was perfect in every way, I should of made a gravy… Prior to this, I don’t recall ever having pork tenderloin so I was a bit skeptical when my boyfriend suggested we make a gravy. My words were “really?? gravy…who does that?”, and now I feel like a complete idiot and have to listen to him say “I told you so” (ughh why do those words sound so much better when they’re coming from me? :). Eating a slab of meat without any kind of sauce can start to taste kind of bland halfway through the dinner, you know what I mean? Haha.
Anyways, if you have a love affair with garlic and balsamic vinegar then this must be on your list of must-trys!
INGREDIENTS: pork tenderloin, garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, s+p
STEP 1: you will need 4-5 garlic cloves (more if you love garlic like me)
finely mince the garlic
STEP 2: in a bowl, combine garlic, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, s+p, and stir; it will turn into a paste-like mixture
pork tenderloin
STEP 3: unwrap the pork tenderloin
KITCHEN TIP: Puncture a few holes into the raw pork tenderloin so that the flavors of the marinade can meld into the meat (courtesy of boyfriend :)
STEP 4: rub the paste all over the pork (can be marinated overnight)
pantry pasta lunch for two
Posted: October 17, 2011 Filed under: pasta recipes | Tags: food, menu, pantry raid, Pasta, Recipe, spaghetti, Tomato sauce 4 Comments »
pantry pasta
What do you do when you hungry, lazy, and don’t want to go out? A pantry/whatever’s available in the fridge raid!!!!
Here’s what I was able to find in the pantry/fridge:
- whole wheat spaghetti (leftover from when I made whole wheat spaghetti caprese)
- can organic tomato sauce
- grape tomatoes
- white button mushrooms
- parmesan cheese
- broccoli
- half a bag of whole wheat spaghetti
- 16 oz can organic tomato sauce
- grape tomatoes
- white button mushrooms
- grated parmesan cheese
- organic dried oregano
- red pepper flakes
- sea salt/fresh ground pepper
- Boil the pasta according to directions. Drain and set aside.
- In a medium pan, combine the tomato sauce, grape tomatoes, mushrooms and bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Season with however much dried oregano, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper to your liking.
- Let the sauce simmer for about 20 minutes or until it’s no longer watery in consistency. (KITCHEN TIP: I love using cheese to thicken the sauce! Just add a few handfuls at time and voila! :)
- Once it’s done, mix the spaghetti in with the sauce.
- Serve. Sprinkle some parmesan cheese and top it off with a few basil leaves.
whole wheat spaghetti caprese
Posted: October 5, 2011 Filed under: pasta recipes | Tags: caprese, food, menu, Pasta, Recipe, spaghetti, Tomato sauce, whole wheat, whole wheat spaghetti caprese 4 Comments »
whole wheat spaghetti caprese
Good morning!! As promised, here’s what I made for date night last week!
This recipe was featured in last Friday’s fave as my new must-try recipe. I’m so glad that I got to try it the day I declared it my fave lol. Usually, it takes me a few weeks before I get around to trying out new recipes. Anyways, I found this recipe on clookbook via Tastespotting.
I made this for date night last week! I was a bit nervous since I hadn’t been in the kitchen for what seemed like forever, three weeks to be exact! This pasta dish was simple, required fairly little ingredients, inexpensive, and pretty darn delicious!
Now on to the recipe review…
Although this was delicious, I did change a few things to suit our tastes and preferences. For the tomato sauce, I had to add in lots of dried oregano, a whole lot of fresh cracked black pepper, and some sea salt. Why? Because I think plain old tomato sauce lacks flavor and to be honest, the idea of just eating spaghetti with plain tomato sauce from a can didn’t sound too appetizing to me.
Also, I was a bit confused about the crushed red pepper ingredient. I am a kitchen newbie, and purchased crushed red pepper flakes because I didn’t not know what he meant by crushed red pepper lol. Are crushed red pepper flakes crushed red pepper?? Furthermore, the recipe never specified when to add this so I assumed he meant while the sauce is simmering.
Aside from some confusion on my part and my newbie kitchen status, this recipe was pretty easy to follow along. My boyfriend loved it! Date night = success!! :)
Here’s what you’ll need to make whole wheat spaghetti caprese…
INGREDIENTS: whole wheat spaghetti, tomato sauce, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella cheese ball, grated parmesan cheese, crushed red pepper, fresh basil (I just love my basil plant!), oregano, salt, and pepper
STEP 1: Boil water and cook pasta
STEP 2: Rinse the tomatoes with water
STEP 3: Cut the tomatoes in halves
STEP 4: Unwrap that big ball of mozzarella cheese
STEP 5: Cut the mozzerella cheese into cubes (my boyfriend and I couldn't help ourselves and nibbled on a few :)
STEP 6: Pluck a few basil leaves, wash, and pat dry
Kat’s Crispy Fish
Posted: September 7, 2011 Filed under: food from the sea recipes, Uncategorized | Tags: crispy fish, Fish, food, fried fish, Lawry's, Panko, Recipe, seafood, Tilapia 6 Comments »
kat's crispy fish
As promised, here’s my recipe for Crispy Fish from last Friday’s favorites! For crispy fish, you only need seven ingredients, and most likely you have them right in your kitchen already. This is a no-recipe recipe! It’s more of an “add more as needed” type of recipe. Since this is a basic fried fish recipe, it’s also goof-proof!
After my first horrific incident with making chicken katsu, I shied away from any recipes that require frying of any kind! The thought of hot oil popping and splattering all over face makes me worry, so my boyfriend usually takes over frying duties because he’s manly like that. Anyways, I don’t know what came over me last week but I took over frying duties! In fact, I told him to “shoo” hehe. He came back surprised and proud :)
My first solo frying experience went great! In fact, the whole meal turned out great! The fish was so crispy and crunchy on the outside, and soft and flakey on the inside.
Oh ladies, this is the dish to make for your man!!! My crispy fish is now one of my boyfriend’s top fave meals that I make him! He loved it so much that he had seconds way before I even finished my first! It makes me very happy seeing him get seconds :)
Hope you guys enjoy this quick and easy idea for DIY date night! What are your date night ideas for this week? Ugh…that reminds me, I don’t have a clue as to what I’m going to make for this week! Any suggestions for me?
INGREDIENTS: tilapia, eggs, flour, panko, Lawry's, pepper, and oil for frying
farm raised tilapia from Trader Joe's
STEP 1: Take the fish out of the package and rinse with cold water
