Green Goddess Dressing

A generous coworker of mine recently brought in a variety of herbs from her garden to share with whoever wanted a few. No longer having an herb garden of my own, I grabbed some basil, chives, lemon balm and oregano. Faced with a glut of CSA lettuce, I used them for dressing.

I think that real Green Goddess Dressing has anchovies in them, but I don’t care for them. And I subbed lime for lemon juice. But other than those changes (that account for 50% – 66% of the ingredients, depending on whether you’re counting the anchovies) it’s totally legitimate Green Goddess Dressing.

Hubs ate most of it as a dip for potato chips, but I did have a little as a sauce for this funny taco, made from a lettuce leaf and strip of bacon.

Green Goddess Dressing

• 1/2 cup herbs (use whatever you have)
• 3 T mayonnaise
• Juice of one lime

Throw everything in the food processor and pulse until herbs are chopped and all is well blended. If it’s too thick, splash a little olive oil in. Too thin, add more mayo. No exact science here.

Grilled pimento cheese, jalapenos, and bacon

Totally over the top, right? But oh, so good.

I just made a little pimento cheese (which is kind of dangerous because you’ll just want to eat it all dipped in chips):

• 1 C cheddar, shredded
• 1 C Monterrey Jack, shredded
• 1/2 C mayonnaise
• 1/4 C jarred pimentos, chopped
• 3 canned chipotle en adobo, diced

Mix all, and let it chill in the fridge for an hour before serving.

Then I spread it on some plain old wheat bread and grilled it with some fresh jalapenos, and chewy bacon. Gooey and filling, and a little bit spicy.

Black Bean Avocado Tostones – Recipe Swap

Tostones.

I have no idea how it’s actually pronounced, but I’ve been having a delightful time telling everyone about how I made these delicious toe – STONE – ays. Yell it out. It feels good in the mouth.

toe – STONE – ays!

Tostones (or toe – STONE- ays, as I like to call them) are fried plantains, and they’re the french fries of the Caribbean. Or so they tell us on wikipedia. Having never been to the Caribbean, I can’t verify this. I can tell you that as a lover of both plantains and fried items, I’ve had my eye on them for a while.

So when I took a look at this month’s recipe swap inspiration, a recipe for pizza from Mary’s Italian Dinners, I knew immediately I would make little tostone pizzas.*

Even though plantains look like bananas, they’re a lot starchier and not sweet. You can’t peel them the same way either, especially when they’re still green.You have to slice off the peel with your trusty blade.

After frying these guys twice, I topped them with beans and avocados, though I think they’d be lovely with a variety of other toppings (goat cheese is at the top of my list.)

Black Bean and Avocado Tostones

• 1/2 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 t cumin
• 1/2 t chili powder
• 1 avocado, peeled and sliced
• 1 plantain, peeled and sliced
• coconut oil, for frying
• salt, to taste

Fry the plantains in about 1/4 inch of oil, until softened, but not brown. Time will vary based on how thick you slice your plantains, but mine took about 2 minutes a side. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels. Place the plantains on a cutting board and smash them with the bottom of a glass. Not too hard, just enough so that they flatten a bit and some of the insides squeeze out the sides. Then, return them to the oil and fry until browned and crispy. Return to the paper towels to drain, then sprinkle on some salt.

Place black beans, cumin and chili powder in a skillet. Heat over medium low, stirring and mashing with the back of a spoon.

Top each plantain slice with a spoonful of the beans, then a slice of avocado. Sprinkle over a bit more salt if you think they need more. (I did this. I’m kind of a salt fiend.) Serve warm.

About the Recipe Swap: The recipe swap is organized by Christianna at the Burwell General Store. Each month, a collection of bloggers reinterprets a classic recipe selected by Christianna. Click below to see what other recipe swappers did with this one.

*Ha ha! Just kidding. I had no idea what to make, even though I’d had a plantain staring at me from the bottom of my fruit bowl for at least two weeks.

Buffalo chicken slaw

It was hubs’s idea to make buffalo chicken sliders. I just decided to skip the bread.

You can see him in the background, alternating between folding laundry and playing video games. Adorable.

Buffalo Chicken Slaw (not really a recipe – more like a formula for assembly)

• shredded, cooked chicken breast*
• Frank’s Red Hot Wing Sauce
• Shredded cabbage
• Sliced celery
• Blue cheese dressing (if you aren’t starving and impatient, like I was, and you have blue cheese in the house, I’d definitely recommend making your own)

If your chicken isn’t already hot, place it in an oven proof dish, then toss with as much Frank’s as you like. Put it in a 350 degree oven until heated through. In the mean time, combine cabbage, celery, and blue cheese dressing. Place in individual serving bowls. Top with chicken and extra sauce, and serve.

*My preference to get cooked breast is to bake bone in, skin on breasts at 350 for 40 minutes. When cool enough to handle, remove meat and shred or chop as desired.

Salad in a jar

I’m the worst when it comes to packing lunch. This is because I’m way too lazy, and always too rushed (due to sleeping in from laziness, of course). So I’ve finally come to accept that I need an option that is completely grab and go. This is it. 100% stolen from Secret Recipe Club.

Start with dressing. I used 3 T hot pepper olive oil + 1 T cider vinegar + a dash of oregano. Then layer in whatever you like, putting items not likely to wilt on the bottom and ending with the delicate bits. Mine goes carrots, celery, sprouts, mushrooms, spinach. When you’re ready to eat it, shake and dump into a bowl.

I made three of these on Tuesday, then ate one each day Wed, Thurs, and Fri. They held up deliciously.

 

Spaghetti Frittata

I love this because unlike most things, it’s even better reheated. It also uses leftovers and features tons of cheese. How could this be bad?

Spaghetti Frittata

• 1 Cup of leftover spaghetti (or other pasta)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of cheese – I like a mix of parmesan and fontina
• 1/4 cup chopped olives
• 2 T olive oil

Preheat your broiler. Mix all ingredients except olive oil. In an oven proof 9″ skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the spaghetti mixture and flatten to make an even layer. Cook over medium heat until the bottom is cooked – about 5 minutes. Finish cooking under broiler until top is browned (about 3-5 minutes more).

Just right for a working lunch.

Roasted veggie salad

This was inspired by a salad I had once at NorthStar, a butternut squash from my dad’s garden, and some beets and arugula from Rockdove Farm.

First, I roasted the beets and squash. Both were peeled and cubed, olive oiled, and spread out on a stone. Into the oven for 20-30 minutes (until tender) at 400.

Next, I put them over a giant bed of arugula and added some goat cheese and Olive Orchard Orange Olive Oil.

World’s greatest lunch.

Greek salad

This salad was inspired by the recipe on the Olive Orchard blog and some beautiful cucumbers and tomatoes from my mom’s garden.

Greek salad

• 1 bunch of fresh oregano leaves, chopped
• 2-3 tomatoes chopped
• 1/2 of a red onion, chopped
• 2-3 cucumbers, peeled and sliced
• 4 oz feta, cut into squares
• olive oil for drizzling  (I used my Olive Orchard Greek)

Combine tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions. Salt lightly (don’t go to heavy, because the feta is pretty salty). Sprinkle oregano and feta on top. Drizzle generously with olive oil.

Squash fritters

Interestingly enough, one of my most viewed posts is Summer Squash Fritters. Because I’m trying to cut back just a bit on my grain consumption, I reworked them today to be grain free. Does that make them gluten free? I don’t know, but these use chickpea flour in place of the usual all purpose flour.

Summer Squash Fritters

• 1 – 1.5 C of shredded crookneck squash (make sure to squeeze all the water from it)
• 1/2 t salt
• 3 T chickpea flour
• 1/4 t pepper
• 1 egg
• 2-3 T olive oil for frying

Mix all with a fork to form a batter. Heat up your oil in a skillet over high heat. Place a few spoonfuls of batter in the pan making pancakes about the size of your palm. Be sure to spread the batter out float, or else the middle won’t cook. Fry until golden and set on one side, then flip and repeat. Fry all the batter in this way. You should get about 5-6 fritters out of it. Drain them on paper towels, sprinkle with salt, and enjoy.

I enjoyed mine today with a little dill dip on them. I made it with (these are really rough estimates) 1/2 cup each mayo and sour cream, 1 T onion powder, 2 T dried dill weed.

Almost pesto

I got some Basil with my green bean delivery recently, and I really wanted to make pesto with it. Unfortunately, there wasn’t quite enough of it. So this is kind of pesto, but not quite. The lesson here is that if you have a nice herb, a few cloves of garlic, and some good olive oil, you can make a divine sauce.

Almost Pesto

• 1 bunch basil
• 2 dashes red pepper flakes
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 1/4 C toasted walnuts (pine nuts are even better, but walnuts are cheaper)
• 1/2 C olive oil

Put the first four ingredients into a food processor and pulse until chopped. Drizzle the olive oil slowly through the tube. Yummy on salad, pasta, and quinoa (below). Or dip some bread into it.