No Butter Chicken

NO butter chicken! I love me some butter chicken, a classic indian curry which usually relies on a few tabs of butter to add silkiness to the sauce. Not this one! And it’s still totally delicious. This is a cinch to make, and thanks to a well-stocked spice cabinet and pantry, I can whip this up any time I crave indian takeout, which is at least once a week! Score.

Shrimp Tacos with Greek Yogurt Sauce

It is expected to be nearly 65 degrees tomorrow in Boston. 65! In March! In honor of this lovely turn of events, I wanted to break out some lighter fare. I’m a little obsessed with tacos in general, and a shrimp taco just seemed like a delicious idea to me.  Lucky for me that I had pinned this recipe a while back after I had fully seduced by Dani’s photography on Clean and Delicious. I opted to add a few different seasonings and chose purple cabbage since I’m in love with its color. Overall, these tacos are simple to prepare and very easy to eat (too many). Yum!

Egg Salad Sandwiches

Everyone has their favorite recipe for egg salad, and this is mine. It’s a little healthier than the traditional — substituting greek yogurt for most of the mayo and cutting out a few of the egg yolks. This is my perfect egg salad.

Healthier Buffalo Chicken

This dish was inspired by a recipe I yanked out of Brian’s Men’s Health mag (i love this mag, too). It was written as a sandwich, but we decided to cut out the roll. I have to say, this was so good and so easy! It’s nice to not over-complicate dinner every once in a while.

Chicken Korma (finally)

You’ve seen one or two korma recipes on this blog here, and that’s because I keep trying and trying (and trying) to mimic the smooth, creamy kormas I have in indian restaurants (and seemingly never at home –until now!). Keep in mind, this is one of my favorite dishes of all time and I have very high standards with it.

Well, people, I’ve got the best homemade chicken korma to date here. Absolutely restaurant quality and amazingly delicious. Yay!

Mexican Tortilla Pizza

A success for the “kid friendly” file!  Whenever I cook for just the two of us, I ask Brian afterward if he thinks the kids would like it. I typically get a gentle “Oh, I don’t know…” or “notsomuch with x ingredient”, etc.  This recipe is a bonus because it’s mostly assembly, which is perfect for kids (or boyfriends) to help out with. So, tonight, the official Kid Friendly category on this blog is born, which hopefully will contain more than this recipe!

Oh, and I should mention how YUMMY this is. SO good. And SUPER easy. Easily made vegetarian by subtracting the beef and using with more refried beans, too, which is a double bonus.

Protein Packed Whole Wheat Banana Nut Muffins

Once in a great while, I see a recipe that makes me want to jump up, whip out my rolling pin, and get baking. This process usually ends in tears, but once in a while it works out lovely.  These muffins are SUPER healthy (once you take a peek at the ingredients you’ll see what I mean) and delicious. Smear them with a little yogurt butter and dig in!

Greek Turkey Burgers with Tzatziki Sauce

I am in love with this tzatziki sauce. I seriously can (and do) eat it straight from the bowl. If you’re unfamiliar, tzatziki is a cold sauce made out of greek yogurt, cucumbers, and other amazingness. It’s super great on sandwiches (like this one), fish, or as a dip, or straight up.

Also, this turkey burger is amazing. Seriously. Maybe my favorite yet. Get yourself the regular ground turkey, not the breast — it makes all the difference in the world.

Marinated Flank Steak with Blue Cheese Dressing

I love Costco. Many of my friends blatantly JUDGE me for hoarding and buying everything in bulk, but I don’t care. I like knowing I’ll have toilet paper through the apocalypse, and I always find fun treats there, like these yummy cashew clusters we picked up yesterday. Already addicted. Anyway, this recipe is neither here nor there, but I won a little war when we bought this flank steak at $4/pound at Costco, and had some in the freezer from Stop & Shop for $8/pound. Bam.

On to the steak. This recipe was found in Ellie Krieger’s new cookbook, So Easy, which I received as a Christmas gift. The steak was delicious, and while I was a little apprehensive that the blue cheese sauce would overwhelm the flavor of the meat (I tend to be a steak purist), I ended up really liking it together with the bed of radicchio. We served it with faux-fried onion rings from Now Eat This, which unfortunately, you won’t see posted here yet because I don’t think I seasoned them enough and they were a little bland.

Open-Faced Egg Sandwich with Thyme Pesto and Lemon Cream

Brian and I have a new Friday night tradition: Breakfast for Dinner. Come Friday, we’re usually both so pooped and it’s a strained effort whenever we plan anything social. So, instead, we typically snug on the couch, watch Mad Men reruns, and eat amazing comfort food like this. If this makes us lame, I’m ok with it.

This meal is perfect after a long week. Not only is it delicious, much of it can be made in advance. I made the pesto earlier in the week (I made another batch after the first one I mentioned as it was a wee too garlicky. This one was delectable), and the lemon cream takes seconds to put together (although 30 minutes for the flavors to “mesh”), so it’s pretty much toasting bread and frying eggs. I can handle that, even after a long day/week.

Creamy Pesto Pasta

This has been on the docket for a while now. Love the idea of a creamy pasta that is actually pretty darn healthy. This recipe relies on the magical greek yogurt for its creaminess. I used some nice thyme pesto that I made for another dish later in the week (recipe soon!), but a store-bought pesto would be perfect for this too. Yummers.

Vegetarian Moussaka

This is one of those vegetarian meals that is so hearty and satisfying (and really, really healthy), that you won’t even notice you’re not eating meat. Both of my dining partners balked at the sizeable portion size at first, yet we all ate every last bite. Yum!

Chicken Gyros

Greek gyro sandwiches are one of my favorite things of all time. The lamb “special” gyro at my local greek restaurant is to die for, and this is a pretty excellent at-home option. This made for a perfect healthy lunch.

Mushroom and Pancetta Tart

I had no intention of making this today, but I found myself with some extra time and extra ingredients and the desire to laze around the house and cook. I’m so glad I did. This is a bit of a quiche/tart/frittata idea, and it’s delicious. The pancetta definitely makes this dish, so don’t skip that. To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t thrilled with the crust, so next time I’d try this one instead.

Jamie Oliver’s Chicken Korma

Chicken Korma is one of my all-time favorite dishes. It’s perfectly comforting with its creamy sauce and tender dark-meat chicken. I have tried, many times, to re-create the dish as I’ve had it in Indian restaurants, but to no avail. I’m sad to say that while this dish was delicious, and probably much healthier than the restaurant versions, it still wasn’t “the one”. Try this though – it calls for store-bought curry paste so it’s pretty easy to put together.

Also, it’s illegal to serve any saucy curry without basmati rice, in my opinion. I used a brown basmati, which takes about 45 minutes to cook, so start that after you get all your prep work done.

Cucumber and Radish Salad

I love radishes. They’re kind of sassy, but not as spicy as you might think. They’re perfect in this summery salad, but I also like to eat a whole radish dipped in sea salt or kosher salt. That’s right – try it!

Denis Leary Chicken Wings

For about a week straight, pretty much the only thing my roommate said to me was, “I want wings”. So I gave them to her, and low-fat at that.

Mughlai Chicken with Spiced Basmati Rice

I’ve been dying to try this recipe for a while…from one of my favorite lady-crushes ever, Nigella. Oh, Nigella…

Anyway, the rice is an old favorite that went perfectly with this dish. Overall, YUM, and great for satisfying cravings for indian takeout.