San-J Sauces

When this packaged arrived from San-J I couldn't contain my excitement. 3 delicious gluten free sauces and a tote bag! and a basting brush! and a cutting board! and the best, a mini USB in the shape of a tamari sauce bottle!  How cool is this company!?

Needless to say I couldn't wait to dive in.  All three of the sauces I cooked with are gluten free certified and non-gmo verified.  They all come with suggestions on the bottle as to what pairs best with each sauce.

I used the Mongolian sauce to make a quick chicken stir-fry with broccoli and green beans over rice. It was so nice to have a sauce waiting for me in the pantry.  It meant I didn't need to get out all the measuring cups and spoons and assemble ingredients which is a total life saver on a weeknight.

The Thai peanut sauce went great with shrimp; the sauce has a little kick to it.  I made shrimp avocado burritos with mixed greens and cilantro lime rice.  I also used this as a dipping sauce later in the week for chicken spring rolls.

I used the orange sauce for a steak and mixed vegetable ramen noodle bowl.  I stir fried the steak and veggies in the orange sauce then tossed in the cooked noodles and topped it all with a hearty shake of sesame seeds.

I am so excited to have these sauces in my condiment stash right now.  I can't wait to continue to use them to add great flavor to more meals.

I received this product for free from Moms Meet (momsmeet.com), May Media Group LLC, who received it directly from the manufacturer. As a Moms Meet blogger, I agree to use this product and post my honest opinion on my blog. The opinions posted are my own.

No Mayo Broccoli Salad

It's a summer bbq side dish that doesn't have mayonnaise in it!  If this delights you as much as it delighted me, keep reading.

Hi, my name is KTC and I refuse to eat mayo in any shape or form.  Here is a broccoli salad that is actually good for you- no mayo, no bacon- and it's delicious!

That's me blending the dressing up.  Feel free to use a blender or a food processor, I find the immersion blender easiest to clean. 

Mix and match the vegetables/nuts/dried fruit you'd like to include.  I got a cole slaw mix, almonds, and craisins to go along with the broccoli and scallions.

Broccoli Salad

Adapted from Pinch of Yum

Ingredients

1 head of broccoli, cut into bite sized pieces

3 scallions, sliced

1 cup cabbage

1/2 cup almonds, sliced

1/2 cup craisins

2/3 cup orange juice

2 tbsp miso paste* (no miso? just double up on the nut butter and add some salt)

2 tbsp nut butter of your choice (I used peanut)

1 shallot, chopped

2 tbsp canola oil

1. Get all your salad ingredients in a large bowl.

2. Put orange juice, miso paste, nut butter, shallot, and canola oil in blending mechanism of your choice.  I used the immersion blender because it is the simplest to clean in this non-dishwasher household.

3. Pour that luscious salad dressing over your anxiously awaiting ingredients and toss. 

I cannot wait to make this again for a larger audience!  It will be the perfect addition to your next event this summer.

Baked Potato Bar

Last night was our 3rd annual scary movie night!  As per tradition we went with another customize-able dinner.

2014: mac and cheese bar
2013: taco bar

This year baked potatoes were the blank canvas.

I used this recipe for making baked potatoes in a slow cooker by the Kitchn.  It's not much different than preparing baked potatoes for the oven.

Our toppings bar included:

butter

parsley-garlic-butter 

salsa

sour cream

sriracha

caramelized onions

chili

cheese sauce

bbq pulled chicken

Fritos

scallions

broccoli

jalapenos

bacon

cheddar cheese

The possibilities were endless!

I also made a very tasty cocktail, caramel apple cider sangria.

I hope you all have a great Halloween!

Thai Peanut Chicken Salad

When did it become so darn hot out!?

It's been feeling like it's summer already so I thought you guys could use a nice refreshing (almost) no-cook meal option.

Thai Peanut Chicken Salad
Adapted from Pinch of Yum

Ingredients
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 bag of broccoli slaw
1/2 cup chopped peanuts
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp siracha
2 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp lemon or lime juice
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp fish sauce
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup water

1. Cook chicken breasts in a pot of boiling water until cooked through, approximately 15-20 minutes. Shred cooked chicken.
2. Place shredded chicken, broccoli slaw, and chopped peanuts in a large bowl.
3. To make the dressing, mix remaining ingredients in a small bowl, whisking until smooth.  Pour over salad, tossing to combine.

So tasty guys! Perfect for the super hot summer they keep warning us is on it's way.

Mac and Cheese Bar

The initial title for this entry was "I'm sorry you weren't invited" because really, I am sorry.

This was an incredible dinner party meal and you should all do it for your friends and family.

P.S. I totally wish I could take credit for this idea.

The concept here was to make a large batch of mac and cheese, and then have everyone add their own mix ins.

We mixed in some festive Halloween pasta for the occasion.

Toppings included: chicken, bacon, sausage, "lobster," mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, brussel's sprouts, broccoli, gorgonzola, tomato sauce, crispy onions, Ritz, siracha, and bbq sauce.

The possibilities are endless!

Above is my (first) bowl of mac and cheese.

I placed the cooked and cheesed-up pasta in the slow cooker so we could eat at our leisure.

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

Broccoli Cheese Pizza Roll

This pizza roll can be customized any way you like.  I used a handful of ingredients I had on hand at the time, but the possibilities are really endless.

Broccoli Cheese Pizza Roll

Ingredients

1 pizza dough, store bought, homemade, you decide

1 cup mozzarella cheese

2 cups chopped broccoli

2 tbsp olive tapenade

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tbsp parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400. Roll out pizza dough on an oiled, rimmed, rectangular baking sheet.  Leaving a 1 inch boarder, spread tapenade evenly over dough.  Top with broccoli and cheese.  Roll dough long-ways and press together to seal.

2.  Sprinkle pizza roll with parmesan cheese and garlic powder.  Bake until crust is browned, about 15 minutes.

Pizza rolls would be great for dinner or game-day snacking.

Now what should go inside my next pizza roll.....

Creamy Parmesan Basil Mac and Cheese

I know, I know, it's really not the kind of weather for some creamy mac and cheese.  But it's fantastic and it's all I could come up with for dinner tonight, so zip it.

I used the Progresso Recipe Starter cooking sauce, creamy parmesan basil, instead of milk and butter for the mac and cheese sauce.  For the cheese I used this awesome new Land O' Lakes product: 4 Cheese Italian Blend.  What 4 cheeses you might ask? Asiago, Romano, Parmesan, and American.  You can get it at the deli counter, not the dairy aisle, and I recommend that you go do that. Now.

I threw in broccoli for good measure.  You know me, always trying to stay healthy!

Delicious, easy, fast, 4 ingredients, yay!

Creamy Broccoli Crock Pot Soup

Let's cleanse our our bellies after gorging ourselves on white trash bars, and get some veggies in our gut!  P.S. white trash bars got me over 300 blog views!!! Amazing chart of blog views below, had to brag about it, sorry.

This broccoli soup is super easy and totally awesome because it cooks in the crock pot.  You can find the recipe at Pinch of Yum.  She calls it broccoli cheese soup, but I think that's a bit of a misnomer because the cheese is just a topping at the end.  It also really doesn't need the cheese because it's crazy delicious on its own.  You can make your own decision on the cheese inclusion.

The ingredients all get dumped into the pot and in the words of my beloved Ron Popeil you just "set it and forget it!"

In the final moments, a game changing decision was made to add some fresh spinach we wanted to use up.  I will admit it was a welcome inclusion even though it was not my idea.

If you've got a crock pot, hop to it!

Spaghetti with Broccoli Cream Pesto

Ok, let's start out by saying I didn't put any cream in this.  I wasn't about to go to the store to get  8 tablespoons of cream.  I apologize for the false pretenses this post is filed under.  But I promise you, it's still great even without the cream.

Spaghetti with broccoli cream pesto comes from Smitten Kitchen.  For my version I used frozen broccoli florets instead of fresh because that's what I had on hand.  Since I didn't have cream, I used whole milk.  I also doubled the recipe because I think we all know that you should never make less than a pound of pasta. Ever.

Check me out, garnishing dishes with fresh parsley.

This recipe is fantastic! I bet it's also a sneaky way to get your kids to eat their broccoli, shhhh.

Broccoli Cheddar Mashed Potatoes

I just want to warn you, I wasn't feeling funny when I sat down to write this post last night and I can't say I'm feeling incredibly humorous tonight either. I shall apologize for the straight forward un-entertaining post.

This is a side dish I made to go alongside some burgers.

I boiled the potatoes for a while and dropped the package of frozen broccoli in for the last few minutes.  You can see I kept the skins on, we like our mashed potatoes chunky and in the flesh.

I mashed up the broccoli and potatoes with butter, a splash of half and half, and sour cream.  Then I dumped in a cutting board load of cheddar cheese and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Things got fancy on Monday night: we put the potatoes in a serving dish instead of right outta the pot.  Classy stuff going on right here everyone.

The final image I leave you with is in the icky lighting portion of my kitchen.

It was nice to have the starchy side and the vegetable all in one dish.  These were a hit.  If you aren't the kind of cook that flies by the seat of their pants you can see some recipes that inspired me here and here.

Alton Brown's Mac and Cheese

I know you're all thinking it....how could KTC possibly ever execute an Alton Brown recipe? she's so lazy! she wants everything to have a shortcut! she hates measuring things! she hates dirtying excess dishware!  But my friends I managed to find the simplest Alton Brown recipe ever created: stove top mac-n-cheese.

The ingredient line up.  Eggs were also involved.

I added some broccoli florets to make it a well rounded meal.  Sometimes I like to consider my health.  I'll refrain from informing you about the embarrassing freakout I had about not being able to fit everything in the pot.

Let me just tell you it's 10pm.  My flight home was delayed almost 8 hours.  I am crazy tired.  But I would kill to have some of this mac and cheese right now.  It was a great success, unlike my journey home from Florida.

Broccoli Cheddar Bites

I know you are really tired of my weeknight meals where I cook pasta and throw a whole bunch of stuff in it. You don't have to say it.  I know it and I'm pretty tired of it too. But those are weeknight and weeknights are just sooooo lazy sometimes.

Moving right along to a NOT so lazy weeknight meal!  Broccoli bites.... with corn! and cheddar! all mushed together into one delicious patty.  I used this recipe here and added some corn to the mix and an additional egg because things were just not coming together nicely.

Yep, I mixed all that icky egg business with my hands.

Then formed them into patties.

I served these with some white rice that I cooked with Italian seasonings.  

When the rice was done cooking  I stirred in arugula and Parmesan cheese.

Let's just all imagine these being cooked in a deep fryer (instead of the oven) for a moment....... mmmmmm. But I will say that gluttony won't be necessary.  These are tasty right outta the oven.