Chicken Sausage and Kale Soup with Cannellini Beans

I would like to start this whole shebang by saying this type of dish is my favorite kind. One, it’s loosely inspired by a recipe, but really much more based on ingredients you already have in the fridge that you didn’t have a plan for. Two, it comes together in about 20 minutes. Three, it’s freaking delicious. And finally, it’s healthy! Made with flavorful andouille chicken sausage (Trader Joe’s), a bunch of chopped kale, and some other pantry staples, this is a weeknight winner.

Escarole-Stuffed Haddock with Sherry Tomato Sauce

This dish is perfect to start the year off on a flavorful note. Serve with pasta or some crusty bread for mopping up the yummy sauce.

Lia’s Pasta Salad with Salami, Pecorino, and Broccoli Rabe

*Content and photos updated July 2012*

This was first inspired by a salad made for a BBQ by a new addition at my  team at my former place of work. Follow that? No need, really. All you need to know that this salad is yummy, travels well, and I’ve made it a half a dozen times for cook-outs and the like. Both the simple and bold flavors make it a perfect summer party salad.

Sweet Potato, Kale, and Bacon Breakfast Burritos

Make ahead frozen breakfast burritos are one of our favorite weekday breakfast options. Every couple of weeks I’ll make a big batch of burritos with varying ingredients (usually some sort of reduced fat meat product like chicken sausage with peppers and onions), but I just loved the idea of adding kale and sweet potatoes for a nice nutrient punch in the morning.

Massaged Lacinato Kale Salad

I am OBSESSED with this salad. Obsessed. To be fair, I love kale, but I’m convinced someone not familiar with kale would love this too. This is the first time I’ve ever tried kale raw, and now I would like to eat a gallon of this salad every day. Dressed simply with a lemon and garlic dressing, this salad is a perfect side dish for summer as it requires virtually zero cooking.

Sausage and Broccoli Rabe and Pistachio Pesto Pizza

This recipe was inspired by two things: a pizza seen on a newly discovered (to me) blog, Healthy Food For Living, and my favorite pasta dishes at a restaurant that I love outside of Boston called Tre Monte. I love the flavors of broccoli rabe and sausage together, and I learned tonight that it doesn’t have to involve pasta for it to be awesome. Enter the weeknight pizza. A rich pesto made out of blanched broccoli rabe, pistachio nuts, pecorino and ricotta cheeses, spread atop whole wheat pizza dough and covered in browned chicken sausage and shredded cheese. I learned from Lauren at Healthy Food for Living that the frozen whole wheat pizza at whole foods is the bomb. It really is. I may never make pizza dough myself ever again. Hooray for that!

My Usual Breakfast

Since my last post was a yummy weekend breakfast treat, I thought I’d share what I typically have for breakfast during the week. Well, sometimes I’ll definitely have an egg or two with some black beans or a slice of sprouted grain toast instead and save the protein shake for after a workout, but lately this has been my morning choice. Maybe because I’ve been hitting the gym more than usual lately, but my body definitely enjoys the protein blast. Anyway, this shake is really tasty (I promise) and definitely keeps me full for several hours. And I love squeezing some greens in at breakfast time .

Bean, Sausage, and Spinach Soup

I’m a big fan of a veggie (and usually sausage) filled soup — especially for a weekend lunch. Make a big batch on Saturday or Sunday and then have the leftovers in the fridge when you need a little snack or an impromptu lunch to bring to work. This soup is creamy and oh-so-healthy.

Kale and Potato Salad in a Creamy Mustard Vinaigrette

This salad is DELICIOUS. I love how I feel after I eat a ton of dark leafy greens — like you just did something good for yourself. It doesn’t hurt when they’re tossed in a flavorful, creamy vinaigrette using greek yogurt, maple syrup, red wine vinegar, and grainy mustard, either. Oh, and toss it all with some teeny tiny potatoes and bacon. Eat your greens!

Pappardelle with Scallops and Arugula

I had purchased some big fatty scallops on a whim since Brian has been hinting at a craving for, like, forever. I was a little disappointed when I couldn’t find anything interesting to do with the scallops after a quick search online (i.e. anything besides pan-searing them). I ended up finding this recipe on marthastewart.com, a resource that is quickly becoming one of my favorites. The recipe seemed to be lacking a little something, so I threw in a chopped bunch of arugula to spice it up a bit. Next time I might even add a second bunch because of the wilt factor, along with a healthy pinch of crushed red pepper flakes. Overall, this pasta dish really let the flavors of the scallops shine, and for this, Brian was grateful.

Chicken Sausage with White Beans and Roasted Tomatoes

Update: I made this again because it was so yummy and I wilted in a couple of big handfuls of baby spinach. Even tastier!
Now this is one we will be eating probably once a week from here on out. It’s so easy, made with ingredients we almost always have on hand, and is totally delicious. We used a spinach, fontina, and roasted garlic chicken sausage from Trader Joe’s (so good), but any ol’ pre-cooked sausage would probably be great too. Next time I might mix in some baby spinach at the end for extra veg factor.

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.

Cornmeal-Crusted Catfish with Collards and Creole Mustard Vinaigrette

This recipe is from one of my all-time favorite restaurants in the Boston area — Hungry Mother. After eating and loving their catfish dish more than once, I was over the moon to find that the recipe was shared online! I actually found this recipe about a year ago and ever since have been looking for Creole mustard. Literally, every.single.grocery trip I stopped to survey the mustard selections and could never find it. Well, folks, this weekend I found it. Waaaay too excited to find mustard, let me just tell you. On the way to a friend’s house, we stopped for espresso and stumbled upon a fantastic gourmet food store called The Cook Shop. Along with the Creole mustard (yay), I grabbed some whole wheat cavatappi (also an impossible find), a rockin’ Microplane pizza wheel, and a few other fun kitchen gadgets and food stuffs.

I’m so glad I finally found this mustard. I’m sure I could have easily substituted another mustard, but because I was trying to replicate a restaurant dish, I really wanted to try to make it as authentic as possible. This dish was amazing, and well worth the search.

Spanikopita Triangles

I did something weird the other day. I actually used one of the groupons that I purchased.

This is big. I have a bad habit of snatching up these deals only to let them wither and expire. Last spring I bought 1 groupon for a cooking class at Eurostoves in Beverly, MA. Foolishly I only bought one, and taking a cooking class solo is just not very fun. Thankfully, I was able to convince my mom to sign up as well (at full price, nonetheless…). I think she thought it would be more like the classes we take each year at Stonewall Kitchen where you sit in a comfy seat and a nice lady cooks, whilst explaining her methods, and then nice people bring you a plate of food and some wine to go with while you learn. This was a liiiiitle different, in that 5 of us were given 12 greek recipes and 2 hours and were told to work it out. I gotta say, I love to cook, but I think i prefer the Stonewall way.

This is one of the recipes we “learned” at this class. I liked that the recipe called to take several layers of filo and stack them up, as opposed to brushing each individual piece with butter, which has always put filo dough in the ‘daunting’ category for me. These make a great appetizer — I made them on the bigger end…you can make them smaller if you have more patience

Baked Stuffed Greek Chicken

I love a good stuffed chicken breast, but I love even more when I have all the ingredients I need on hand when a particular craving strikes. Since my list of recipes-to-try grows more ad more each week, I also love knocking one off the list from time to time. I ripped this out of RR’s Everyday Magazine because it looked like an easy, healthy weeknight recipe.  I served it with English Peas (recipe soon!) and my standby cous cous.

Pasta with Spicy Turkey Sausage, Broccoli Rabe, and Garlic Crema

A few nice people around these parts have commented on how my photos have improved and are looking spiffy these days. Well, to you lovely people, sorry about this one. Tonight, I simply did not care about lighting, garnishes, food composition, or textiles. In fact, the fact that my little DIY “photo studio” is housed WAY up on the second floor of our apartment was a major deterrent tonight to snapping a good photo, after a week (or two) like I’ve had. My job is sucking the life out of me at the moment, and each evening, I arrive home weary and generally pretty surly. Luckily, I live with a fine man who makes a stiff drink and is always there to pat my head and make me smile.

Also, tomorrow’s friday, which always improves morale around here.

So does pasta. And this dish is no exception.

Spaghetti Squash Casserole with Ricotta, Spinach, and Turkey Pepperoni

I loved so much about this meal.

#1. It is YUMMY. Seriously, this thing was very filling and very lasagnaesque. If that’s a word.

#2. It can be (and was) made entirely in advance (two days prior, in my case).

#3. It features spaghetti squash, a vegetable that I’ve always wanted to like.

This contains a tad bit too much cheese to actually call it healthy, but it is a MUCH healthier take on lasagna and for that I am grateful.

Seared Scallops over Wilted Greens

I intended on making this last night for dinner, but we had a last-minute overnight guest who just happens to be a 10 year-old boy who instead suggested “waffles”  or “meat lovers pizza” for dinner.  Now, while I myself am not a parent, my partner is, and lemme just say– it is hard to not eat like crap when kids are around. While I succumbed to the pressure last night and shelved this dish to lunch today, I’ve got to figure out this kid-friendly/real food equation. And fast.

On to lunch: this was fantastic. And I loved that the recipe used both the leaves and the stems of the kale, one of my favorite greens.

White Bean and Warm Spinach Salad with Bacon and Mushrooms

This was so damn good that B didn’t even realize it had mushrooms (his alleged arch enemy) in it. I loved this, and since it pretty much contains ingredients that I always have on hand, I will be making this a lot.

Potato and Broccoli Rabe Gratin

I have been craving a naughty potato dish for a while now. And despite the fact that this was based on a cooking light recipe AND I had the nerve to add additional veggies in AND omitted the bacon, this still definitely satisfied my naughty craving.  Not too shabby.