Recipes

Lemon bars

I choose salty over sweet most of the times, but I love a not overly sweet dessert. And these lemon bars are just that! They are zesty, slightly sweet, and so easy to make that even a non-baker like me can handle it.

But before I jump into the recipe let me tell you that the crust is like a buttery shortbread cookie that made me think twice about dumping the lemon filling over it! It looked perfectly fine as it was—I’m a sucker for shortbread!

The lemon filling is everything I love in a dessert. It’s tart, creamy, and has the right balance of sweet. And it was made with fresher than fresh lemons from our tree. It doesn’t get better than that!

Now, there’s a couple of things I’ve learned while making this lemon bar recipe. Don’t over bake the crust. Make sure it’s baked just enough to hold the filling without becoming a mess. Also, the bars need to cool completely and then chill in the refrigerator for a few hours before you cut into them.  This is to ensure that they won’t go all over the place—resist the urge to spoon a corner “just to try it”. It’s not worthy of the filling leakage and the tongue burn.

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Slow-cooker unauthentic chicken cacciatore

There’s no authentic-traditional chicken cacciatore recipe. For what I gathered, it’s the most vague recipe in the history of the Italian-American cuisine. Google “cacciatore” and you get all kinds of possibilities; creamy, healthy, Italian (redundancy?), spicy chicken cacciatore and even vegan cacciatore. If you need a cacciatore recipe you’ll certainly have plenty of choices but none will be “traditional”.

I was not going to post my unauthentic chicken cacciatore recipe. But this was the best frigging chicken cacciatore I ever tasted in my life and this is, after all, my cooking blog. If one of my kids decide to make chicken cacciatore one day it better be this one.

What so special about it? Nothing! It’s all chicken cacciatore is meant to be; whatever the hell the cook wants. And to me it is tender and juicy chicken, braised in a flavorful wine sauce, loaded with peppers, carrots, tomatoes, onions, garlic, herbs, capers and olives.

So, to my kids and to anyone that wants to try this unauthentic-unapologetic chicken cacciatore, here is how.

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Warm lentil kale salad with beets and roasted sweet potatoes

It’s not secret I’m a big fan of lentils. I grew up eating them and I’ve never really stoped. What’s not to like? They’re fiber and protein packed, keeping you full for hours, and loaded with tones of ‘good for you’ nutrients.

This warm lentil and beet root kale salad is more like a full meal. It’s a great reset for a horrible weekend of less than stellar eating choices including, but not limited to, donuts and pizza—shameful confession.

The best part of this recipe is that you can buy all the precooked ingredients at Trader Joe’s, with the exception of the roasted sweet potatoes. The trick that makes this salad ultimately ‘dealicious’ is marinating the lentils in the dressing.

I almost feel bad calling this a recipe. Honestly, you could throw any ingredients together and make this work as long as you marinate those lentils in the dressing. I think the kale and lentils alone with the dressing would make an excellent salad, but I happened to have beets and sweet potato ready to use. So I did!

The beets and the lentils really complement each other, and the sweet potato added some more texture to this salad. You could make your own creation, but whatever you do don’t skip on this dressing. It’s so good! Top everything with a layer of parmesan and pom seeds and you got yourself a meal in salad form!

 

 

 

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Caldo Gallego-Galician Soup

I’ve been craving Caldo Gallego for a while and today I finally made a big pot. I grew up eating this hearty soup pretty much all year long no matter how cold or warm the weather was. It is one of my favorite comfort foods.

Caldo Gallego is a traditional Spanish soup from Galicia, a grass-covered region in the North-West of Spain by the Atlantic coast. My mom was born and raised there. So did my grandmother.

I was never given a written recipe for Caldo Gallego. I learned it from my mom, who learned from her mom, who…you know how it goes. Traditionally, Caldo Gallego is made with a typical Galician green called “Grelos” (which is similar to Rapini), cured meats, potatoes and white beans. Grandma, who lived through war times, never added meats to the pot. Mom, who immigrated to Brazil after war times, never skipped the meats.

Although most of the traditional Caldo Gallego ingredients are readily available here in the USA, I decided to make this batch my own way; turnip greens, potatoes, onions, salted cured pork and cannellini beans from a can- so sorry mom and grandma’!

It all came together beautifully. Filling, hearty, and yet, super simple to make. While there are many types of recipes for this famous soup out there, I want to share with you my very own!

 

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Caramelized pork chops with spiked orange pomegranate sauce

Before we jump into this recipe, let me tell you, I’m not a fan of pork chops. Neither is my family. But once in a while, when they are on sale, I buy them. And you know what? They always turn out great! As long I don’t overcook them it’s all good. It takes a while to get to that perfect doneness. Not too dry. Not raw. Once you get it right pork chops are not that bad. Even better if you drown them in sweet-tangy-fruity-spicy-boozy sauce. Heavenly!

These pork chops are my new favorite. The chops are coated in a brown sugar mixture before being seared in a super hot skillet. Then you deglazed the pan with a bit of orange juice and a cocktail (yes, you read that right) made with muddled pomegranate seeds, thyme, Serrano pepper, lime juice and Cointreau.

I served it on top of couscous—but rice or potatoes are good choices too. The couscous absorbs the sauce and adds some creaminess to the dish.

The pork chops will take no longer than 20 minutes to cook and you can make the couscous in 5 minutes while the chops finish in the oven. It’s one of the easiest, prettiest and tastiest dishes I ever made!

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Spinach and artichoke lasagna roll ups

Lasagna roll ups is one of my favorite, simple, somewhat ‘lazy’ meals to make! You may think that roll ups are harder to make than lasagna. I say “no way” to that and I would argue it’s even less time consuming! For real!

This recipe is really easy to throw together and I’ve made this one slightly healthier—no meat and more spinach than cheese went into the filling. I also used leftover vodka sage sauce from last night’s dinner, but any marinara sauce works. Honestly these roll ups are so good that they don’t need any kind of sauce whatsoever.

There are lots and lots of lasagna roll up versions in the Universe. This one is more like a ‘get inspired’ recipe. Use more cheese, replace spinach with meat, do a Mexican flavor version…whatever inspires you. Either way, I’ve add the rough recipe at the end of this post in case you think these rolls look just perfect as they are!

Now, I baked the rolls side-up rather than laying down on their side. I did this because the best part of this dish—to me at least—is the crispy edges!

It’s also important not to overcook the lasagna sheets. It’s better if you cook them just enough to be pliable—barely al dente! That way the sheets will stay in one piece, it’ll be easy to roll them up and you end up with a perfect texture after baking.

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Bone broth and beef Pho in the Pressure Cooker

 

Pho is easier to make than I thought. There are no hard prep requirements or techniques to master. If you can boil water, you can make pho.

This is an easy beef Pho version for four people in 1½ hours using a pressure cooker. The sweet-savory broth always comes out full of flavor and the rice noodles are addicting–and gluten free!

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Chocolate crinkle cookies

Humans are resilient. I’m no exception. I decided to give baking yet another try. And what better way to do so than making cookies. Not any cookies. Crinkle cookies. Not any crinkle cookies. Chewy chocolate crinkle cookies!

I’ve been seeing crinkle cookies everywhere lately. They seem to be the holiday cookie of choice this year. There are so many recipes out there for these cookies but the one from What’s Gaby Cooking seemed simple, straight forward and fairly safe for my baking-challenged self.

I’m not sure if the baking stars were perfectly aligned over my kitchen or this recipe is just on point. Whatever it was, it worked and I want you to know that it can happen to you, too!

Here is the link to Gaby’s recipe and I also included one below.

I’m so full of baking hope and positivity I can barely contain myself– I may even bake my way into Christmas!

Tis the baking season!

 

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Turkey and kale taco pasta with avocado crema

Two of my kid’s favorite things in one dinner. Pasta and taco. The kale is just there so it can ‘healthify’ further this dish, that honestly, it’s pretty clean if I say so myself.

There’s very little prep involved and it can be done in less than one hour. It’s just making the taco meat, washing and chopping some veggies and whipping the avocado crema together. Now, this avocado crema is not optional. It truly brings the dish to another level– and you’ll want to keep it on hand for most things because it’s that good!

Start by cooking the turkey meat with the taco spices and diced tomatoes. Add the kale and lastly the onions+bell pepper+corn. The chopped vegetables go last so they keep their crunch and don’t overcook. The rest is easy. Toss the pasta and serve!

To keep with the taco tradition, I like to serve the pasta with toppings on the side such as shredded cheese, crushed tortilla chips, chopped green onions, chopped cilantro, and–of course– the avocado crema.

I’m including two separates recipes bellow. One for the taco pasta and one for the, you know, avocado crema I’m raving about. Both are independently delicious but oh so much better together!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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White chocolate ginger snap truffles

It’s that time of year when everyone struts their baking stuff for the holiday parties. But not even the simplest cookie recipe can prevent me of an epic cookie fail. And I’ll be put in baker’s purgatory if I dare to make a batch of cookies from one of Betty’s cookie mixes.

My way around the non sense baking shenanigans that takes place in the holidays is to try new no bake treats recipes like this spicy gingersnap truffles. No bake. Very little margin for error. Deceptively easy treat. So good!

White chocolate drizzled truffles with a spicy ginger snap filling inside. So easy to make and eat. Here is the recipe.

White chocolate ginger snap truffles

Ingredients

  • 16oz ginger snaps packet
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp ground cloves
  • ½ tsp ground nutmeg
  • 8oz condensed milk (half of a 14oz can plus a bit more)
  • 1 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
  • 1 tbsp of coconut oil
Method
  1. Line a baking tray with parchment paper or non-stick pastry mat.
  2. In a food processor, crumbs the ginger snaps. Pour into a large mixing bowl.
  3. Gradually pour in condensed milk and mix thoroughly. If the mixture is too dry add more condense milk. Mixture should be homogeneous and sticky to the touch.
  4. Using your hands, pick up approx. 1 tablespoon of mixture and roll into a ball. Keep your hands slightly wet so mixture doesn’t stick to hands and it’s easy to roll.
  5. Place ball onto prepared tray. Repeat this process until all the mixture is finished.
  6. Melt the white chocolate chips with the coconut oil in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Remove and mix. Microwave 30 more seconds and mix. Repeat in increments of 15 seconds after that until fully melted.
  7. Drizzle melted white chocolate over the truffle balls with a spoon, doing quick horizontal swings until truffles are covered.
  8. Enjoy!