Greek Chicken Salad

This healthy version of chicken salad is a hit in my book. I love love greek salads, or really anything with olives and feta. I made a batch of this and have been bringing it to work for lunch.

8 oz. greek yogurt
1/2 large cucumber, peeled, seeded, shredded with any remaining water removed (for yogurt sauce)
1/2 large cucumber peeled and sliced
3-4 garlic cloves pressed
1 tsp white wine vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil
Some fresh lemon juice
2 cups cooked chicken, chopped into small pieces
1 cup tomatoes, seeded and diced
sliced olives
Salt and pepper, to taste
Pita or bread, for serving
Crumbled feta cheese

For the yogurt sauce:
-Mix yogurt, shredded cucumber, garlic, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, and lemon juice. Drizzle lightly with olive oil.

-Combine the chicken, cucumber, tomatoes, olives and yogurt sauce in a medium bowl. Stir well to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Serve as desired over pita or bread, topped with crumbled feta cheese.

Enjoy!

Dal Makhani

I love love spicyness, fresh veggies, and warm wholesome dishes, especially when it's cold outside. So it makes since that I would love Indian food. I've looked at many recipes that look expensive and some of the ingredients would be hard to find. I haven't been able to catch it yet, but I'm stoked to watch the food network's show Aarti Party with Aarti Sequeira. Perhaps she will give me ideas and her recipes will be more authentic, but for now I decided to experiment with this recipe. I had invited Joseph over for dinner and really didn't think it had turned out. It smelled good, but it just looked like brown mush and it had burnt pieces in it. However it was DELICIOUS! Very rich, filling, comforting. And Joseph explained to me that indian food is supposed to be somewhat burnt. Good to know! I'm not sure how authentic it is, but it was so good, I will probably make it again this week. This recipe serves 3-4 people and tastes just as good as leftovers for lunch. I served it with toasted pita bread,white rice, and a glass of milk. It is very spicy and rich so it requires some toning down sides.

1 cup dry lentils
1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup water
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
salt and pepper
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro

-Boil water and dry lentils in a large saucepan. Reduce heat to a simmer for 10 minutes, until lentils are open and tender. Drain and return to pot.
-Use a spoon to stir lentils around pot, mashing some against the side of the pot. Add tomatoes, ginger, garlic, cayenne, water, butter, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat for about an hour, or until thickened. Periodically check to make sure the water has not cooked out. If so, add a bit more water and cover pot for remaining cooking time.
-Stir in cream and cilantro and serve immediately.

Perfect for a freezing cold day!! Enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Here is my breakfast, left over Nutella Banana Oatmeal Muffins with a Pumpkin Spice Latte!!

So everyone loves Starbucks, but does not want to pay for it, right? Well me being the coffee fanatic I am have been in search of the perfect pumpkin spice latte recipe for at home. Here it is:

2 cups milk
2 tablespoons canned pumpkin
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tablespoon packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or cinnamon and nutmeg)
strong coffee or espresso

Using a blender, puree milk, pumpkin, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice until combined. Pour into a saucepan and heat over medium heat for about 5 minutes until warm and frothy. If you have a milk frother, you can use that to make it even frothier! Combine this with coffee or espresso to satisfy your personal coffee/latte ratio. Haha.

This is my coffee central. I like to use my french press to make rich coffee for recipes like this.


Here is my milk frothing up!

Nutella Banana Oatmeal Muffins

These are great for breakfast, snack, or dessert! Enjoy!


1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup Old Fashioned Oatmeal
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 large eggs
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
3 very ripe, large bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup nutella
Chocolate chips if you like!!

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

-In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, oats, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

-In another bowl, combine the mashed bananas, eggs, Nutella, melted butter, and vanilla. With a rubber spatula, lightly fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until combined and the batter is thick and chunky. Do not overmix. Fold in chocolate chips.

-Distribute batter into muffin tins and bake until muffins are golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 15 minutes.

This made about 20 muffins for me, but I kept adding spices, oats, etc. to batter to satisfy me. :)

Winter Life

So I've been slacking. Not on living, but on updating. Recent happenings include:

-Huntsville for Thanksgiving w/the fam and Joseph, which include birthday celebration for Jeremy, Maura and Joseph. It was so wonderful to be home. I hadn't been since August and I was lucky enough to be off work Monday through Thursday! We had our traditional favorites, then packed a lot of it up, and Joseph, Maura, Jeremy and I headed back to Tuscaloosa for Iron Bowl weekend. I had to work Friday, but I got put on call Saturday so I was able to spent the day with everyone! Of course I love going home, but I also love when my family comes here and I can host and just show them what my life is like here.

-Joseph's Birthday, as well as our 2 year anniversary! We went up to a French bistro in Birmingham we've been wanting to try called Chez Fon Fon. The food, wine, entire experience was wonderful! They had everything safe (ex. Croque Monsieur) to adventurous (ex. steak tartare, escargot) and all in between. I love going places like this with Joseph, because I can order the traditional egg dishes, fish dishes, cheese plates, wine, etc. that call my name, and I also get a taste of all the exotics that Joseph craves (which I like, but not more than the aforementioned). Now let me tell you what... Joseph just LOVES this plan. He is such a wonderful food sharer. :) Then there is a heavenly dessert, Chocolate pot de creme! This is a giant pot of creamy chocolate, eaten with chocolate biscotti and a spoon. Of course coffee was a must with it, so needless to say I was up all night.

-We went canoeing out on the lake at our friends' place. The dog idea was scary, but were guaranteed that the dog would help keep the canoe steady, instead of knocking us over. (It was probably 40 degrees). It was SO beautiful out there at sunset, as you can see.






-Making Christmas plans! I was able to set up my work schedule so that I can travel to Detroit to see my family between Christmas and New Years, and so that I can go to San Diego with Joseph for a week in January. Yay! I've also purchased my first Christmas tree! Still in the process of decorating it, but hey, baby steps.

-I purchased my first TV! After shopping for quite awhile, I finally gave in and bought a 40 inch Samsung! I was going to go bigger, but now that it's set up in my apartment, I realize that this is plenty big and the picture and sound is just phenomenal! I wasn't going to give into paying for HD, but turns out I was able to get it for only $7.99 more a month. Now how could I pass up that. I'm enjoying using my netflix and other internet apps. I had no idea I could do so much on a TV!

-Me cooking in all my spare time! I have really gotten into it lately. I'll be posting some of my recipes I've been trying out the last few weeks.