Sick, Sick, Sick! That’s right, Eric and I have caught that nasty bug that’s going around. Fortunately it seems to be limited to our sinuses, no upset tummies which we’re quite thankful for. I’m pretty miserable, but wanted to get this post up because it was such a fun romantic meal. One interesting aspect was that since we’re house sitting for his parents, I had to work with the food they had. It felt like a Top Chef challenge!

A few days before Valentine’s Day I was at Safeway and saw these cute heart shaped bowls. They were on sale for $1 so I thought they’d be great for a fancy, romantic meal. I made a few courses in small portions all served on one plate or bowl that we shared. That made it very intimate and fun, you have to sit close to share a dish!

First we had some thick sliced bread cut in the shape of a heart. I oiled a baking pan and set the hearts in it, then topped them with slices of fuji apple, freshly shelled chopped pecans, and brie. Then I toasted it in the oven for about 5 minutes at 350 degrees.

Next was a scallop and roma tomato ceviche with fresh avocado on tortilla chips and a bed of romaine. This was my first time using or eating scallops and I was really pleased. Ceviche seemed rather ambitious, but it really turned out well I simply chopped the scallops and tomatoes and marinated them in lime juice, garlic, salt and pepper in the fridge for a few hours. I mixed fresh avocado with some latin seasonings and topped each chip with the avocado and then the ceviche.

After that was a simple mixed green salad with Patti Johnson’s Homemade Caesar Dressing (that’s Eric’s mom) and garlic croutons.

Finally we had a garlic and lemon pepper pasta with sun dried tomatoes and feta. The tomatoes stand out so well in this dish, it tastes amazing! It’s so simple to make. Boil your noodles and then mix in olive oil, lemon juice, pepper, chopped garlic, tomatoes and feta. Yes, it’s that simple.
Eric thought it was very fancy, and although it took a bit of prep work, everything was simple to make. The dessert was more complicated, but you’ll have to wait for the end of the month because it’s my Daring Baker’s Challenge!

Happy Valentine’s Day! Or as Eric and I sometimes call it, “Single’s Awareness Day”. See, Eric and I both made decisions around the same time (late teens for him, early twenties for me since I’m older!) not to date anyone unless we were ready for marriage and thought they could be the one we were supposed to marry. We didn’t know each other at that time, but both of us were really secure in trusting that God would provide that person when we and they were ready. And He did! So Valentine’s Day wasn’t too hard on us as singles. But so many of our single friends felt so alone and miserable on Valentine’s Day. So many of our married friends felt that was their one day a year for romance. We didn’t feel like either of those situations were healthy neither of us really sees Valentine’s Day as important. But we are having a mini marriage retreat this weekend because we’re house sitting for Eric’s parents. So I’m fixing us a special dinner and dessert, which means I can’t say we’re NOT celebrating Valentine’s Day.

My latest cooking adventure has been cooking with Kale. It’s the next ingredient in the Superfood Challenge, and we were supposed to use it as a main ingredient for dinner. So I decided it’d be good for this weeks vegetarian meal. Unfortunately, it was not so successful for Eric. He loved the oven fries, crispy goat cheese and pear crumble. But he was not a fan of the sauteed garlic kale that I served the goat cheese over, or Ina Garten’s Herb Roasted Onions. I actually really liked the onions, but he didn’t like having just onion without other veggies or meat.

The crispy goat cheese balls are really easy. Simply roll the cheese into a ball, then coat in some egg and then some Panko mixed with a little salt and pepper. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and cook the cheese rotating throughout for about 3 minutes. The pear crumble was also very easy, I don’t have a recipe because I just threw things together. First chop the pear small then mix in single serving oven safe dishes with some orange zest, lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

Mix some oats with flour, brown sugar and cold butter until it’s nice and crumbly. Spread over the pear and put in the oven about 20 minutes. Nice simple dessert that just took one pear! Now, I wasn’t going to give up on Kale, so I decided to try “disguising” it. Thus my Kale Feta Burger was born, and it was more successful, hooray!

First I chopped the kale small and coated it in olive oil and garlic powder. Then I roasted it at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes. In the ground beef I mixed about 1/2 cup of Feta, some minced garlic and onion (the dehydrated kind) and salt and pepper. Then I mixed the roasted Kale in. My one mistake was that I portioned out the amount of meat with thinking about all that I’d be adding. So I had patties that were too fat. They were still delicious but we like thin burgers. Once it was all mixed I formed it into two patties and fried them in a pan.

Eric’s parents didn’t have hamburger buns, but they had Texas Toast, so we went with that. I topped it with lettuce, dill pickle chips, fresh avocado and tomatoes, and sauteed onions and mushrooms. Yummy! It was really good and Eric could not belive that he’d just eaten half a cup of Kale I’m so sneaky. While I made the burgers, Eric made a broccoli salad as I gave him basic instructions off the top of my head. It turned out really good and I’m so thankful to have a husband who can follow recipes/instructions in the kitchen. By the way we only like this salad fresh so just make as much as you need. Have a great evening and be on the lookout for my fancy dinner I’m making tonight, coming soon!

Broccoli Salad
serves 2
Ingredients

2 handfuls of broccoli in bite sized pieces
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 TBS crumbled bacon
1 TBS mayonaisse
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp honey

Instructions

Toss the first three ingredients in a bowl. Mix last three ingredients separately, drizzle over the salad and toss well.

This is another one of my favorite meals to make with my famous red sauce. If you already have the sauce made up, it really only takes about 15 minutes to boil the pasta and cook the chicken. We’re talking fast! If your life is anything like mine has been lately, you need fast meals.

I’ve realized I’m overcommitted right now. I knew that would be a possibility. Things will get a little better in April for a few weeks, and then again in June, at which point I’ll need to re-evalute some of my ministry areas and decide what to do. I’m pretty sure I already know, but it’s hard because I love what I do and don’t want to stop. But I also need to make sure my relationship with God and with my husband come before my ministry, and right now I don’t always have the energy to do that, so something has to go. I’m hoping this Saturday morning to have some time with God to just evaluate what’s going on in my life, what emotions I haven’t been dealing with or facing, and how I feel about where I am and what I’m doing. I’ve just been going, going, going, without taking the time to think my feelings through.

I think that picture was Eric letting me know he was hungry! He is such a wonderful husband and treats me so well. I’m really blessed to be married to him and realize I didn’t really understand love until I met him. I know, I’m getting so sappy! Guess I’m feeling reflective this week, plus Valentine’s Day is coming. We actually have never celebrated it before because we hate how commercialized it is, but since it’s a Saturday this year I’m planning to fix us a nice dinner. Oh and an amazing dessert that I won’t be able to show you until the end of the month, but I’m expecting it to be drool worthy! This recipe serves two along with a side salad.

Chicken Parmesan

Ingredients

1 chicken breast cut in half
1 egg
salt and pepper
1/8 cup Panko bread crumbs
1/8 cup parmesan cheese
olive oil
2 servings spaghetti noodles
1 cup Diana’s meaty red sauce

Instructions

Boil noodles according to package directions.

Sprinkle chicken breast with salt and pepper. Scramble egg in a small bowl, and mix parmesan and panko in another small bowl. Dip each half of the breast in egg, coating well, then in the parmesan mixture. Heat oil in a frying pan and cook chicken on High for 3-5 minutes on each side (depending on thickness of chicken). Slice it to make sure it’s cooked through.

Heat red sauce in the microwave. Place noodles on the plate, top with red sauce and chicken slices.

*** I have to update this to say that Eric is obsessed with it. He loved it so much and said it’s so delicious. The combo of the sweet avocado and balsamic vinegar with other fruit is apparently addicting and so he’s had some sort of fruit salad with it every day!

Do you notice anything strange about the taco above? Well the most obvious is that the tomatoes are really strawberries. Actually the only thing in that taco that is as it appears is the guacamole is actually made from avocados!

I stumbled across Chou’s Superfood Challenge #1 while visiting her Daring Baker post. I eat a lot of avocados, and although I have had them in a dessert before, it’s not something I’ve ever done myself. I decided I had to participate in this challenge. In Hawaii I had an avocado dip for fruit that was absolutely delicious. I knew I could easily figure that out, but I didn’t want to be so simple. I had two basic ideas, one was something with balsamic vinegar because it is one of my many food obsessions, and I know I like it with other stone fruits so why not avocados? I also decided to include mango because I had one to use up and it has a pit too.

My second basic idea was to use the avocado dip somehow. I realized it would look sort of like guacamole, and then the light bulb went off. Why not make dessert tacos?!! I already knew I could quickly make a tuile and shape it like a taco shell (that’s where I eat my words about probably not making tuiles again, but I only made a quarter recipe). So my plan was hatched and I only had to hope it would both look and taste good.

I decided that to make the “meat” I would make a sugary balsamic vinegar syrup, mix it with ricotta and the some mango chunks to make it, well, chunky. For cheese I took some shredded coconut and stirred it up with some yellow and red food coloring mixed with a little warm water. Then of course the tuile for a taco shell. I’m really excited about how good it looked, and it tasted amazing! Eric was sad I only had two shells. But I think I’ll make a fruit salad with the leftover avocado dip. This actually only took about 30 minutes to make and I would definitely make these for a party sometime.

Sweet Avocado Dip
makes about 1/4 cup
Ingredients

1/2 avocado
1/8 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
dash of vanilla extract

Instructions

Cube the avocado and put all the ingredients in a food processor. Process until smooth and creamy. Great with fruit!