Kale & Brussels Sprout Salad

Two of my favorite vegetables - kale and brussels sprouts - wrapped into an easy to make salad. Win. Win. The recipe comes from Bon Appetit - I adapted it by adding dried cherries and skipping the cheese. Click to see the recipe on Bon Appetit. I served this yummy salad with some seasoned and ready to cook whole chicken from Whole Foods.

Buffalo Cauliflower Pizza

Well hellooooo! I might just get back to blogging after a nearly four year hiatus. The reason...this pizza! Hot damn this Roasted Buffalo Cauliflower Pizza (by the Savory Vegan) was one of the most delicious pizza I have ever made! (And I've made a lot of pizzas in my time).

We came to this pizza because B and I both love our veggies. We substitute veggies in place of meat in a lot of recipes. (But don't get me wrong I love a good steak and burger!) We also love pizza, but since I try to avoid dairy 98% of the time, I'm always looking for a good pizza without cheese. (Clearly I am in the camp that the best part about pizza is the crust and not the cheese...mmmmm bread, I love bread.) This buffalo cauliflower pizza hit the spot and B even remarked, "I don't miss the cheese!" We inhaled this pizza and already discussed other variations. Next up, Buffalo Chicken Pizza (the same as above but with chicken) and riffs on the California Pizza Kitchen BBQ Chicken Pizza (one with chicken and one with cauliflower!)

p.s. I think my best move here was using Trader Joe's pizza dough - so much quicker than making my own from scratch.

See the full recipe here: Roasted Buffalo Cauliflower Pizza by the Savory Vegan.

Tidwell Thanksgiving Recap

Happy Thanksgiving Friends! Hope your day was filled with lots of family, friends, laughter, love and thankfulness! Several people have already asked what the Tidwell family enjoyed this holiday so here is a quick recap. Every host and chef wants to hear "this was the best year yet" so kudos to everyone for helping make this Thanksgiving dinner the best yet!" Huge shout out to Bon Appetit for providing all of this year's inspiration! (Click on the titles for recipes).
We started the morning with The Ultimate Sticky Buns

Spinach Puffs: A Perfect Appetizer (Especially for the Holidays!)

Its that season again - time for lots of gatherings, parties and lots and lots of food. This time of year should be all about moderation, but lets be honest, its way too easy to give in and enjoy the holidays to the fullest extent! My solution - find some fun yet somewhat healthier options. One to make the rotation this year are these spinach puffs that I read about in the November issue of Bon Appetit. (Truth be told, I tend to only like spinach baked into something else so this was right up my alley to full me into loading up on the Popeye favored veggie goodness.) So whether you plan to have a house full of people or are a guest to someone's home, why not whip up these super easy spinach puffs for an appetizer, a veggie side or eat a couple for a vegetarian dinner!

Baked Orzo with Vegetables and Mozzarella

This was a super easy recipe thanks to all the leftover grilled vegetables I had from the Grilled Caponata Salad with Cheesy Toast recipe. I made that first dish two days before Hurricane Sandy was coming and then as the weather reports got worse, I figured I should cook up all of the leftover grilled veggies in advance of the storm. So viola - I present baked orzo with vegetables and mozzarella. A great way to get an abundant dose of vegetables in your pasta.

Grilled Caponata Salad with Cheesy Toast

Delicious and easy way to use up all those fresh vegetables you overbought at the grocery this week! As a pseudo vegetarian, this dish is perfect. A variety of colorful, fresh vegetables char grilled served with some cheesy bread. If you need the protein, cook up some chicken, seafood or steak. The original recipe called for grilled flatbread but since I had none, I made my own grilled cheesy toast - ciabatta sliced up with olive oil, garlic and mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

Charred Green Beans with Harissa & Shrimp

I flagged this recipe simply because it involved harissa. For those of you that have not yet experienced the joy that is Cava Mezze, I am sorry you've been deprived that #greekygoodness. Once you sit down, the Cava waiters bring over a little sampling of dips, including the harissa - a spicy combination of tomatoes, peppers and olive oil that can't be beat. I often find myself contemplating when or how to get my next fix of this stuff. So fast forward to the July issue of Bon Appetit - all I needed was fresh green beans (and I got those when I went to the pick your own farm) to get me to my next harissa fix!

Verdict - while this recipe was awesomely spicy, I still need to work on perfecting it. Or maybe this will be my homefix and I can go to Cava whenever I need other #greekygoodness! Either way this harissa will be great on grilled vegetables, meat or seafood and of course with pita.

"Pick Your Own" Adventure: Hollin Farms

Goods from my first visit to Hollin Farm. Total Price? $25!

My new favorite trek outside of D.C is a scenic hour or so drive that ends in an amazing pick your own farm - Hollin Farm in Delaplane, VA. I only discovered this place last month after my friend Amy and I stumbled upon it after a failed attempt to visit another farm. Not wanting to drive back to the city, we started exploring and totally lucked out. If you like knowing where your food comes from - a pick your own farm like this is awesome! Acres and acres of vegetables and fruit at incredibly cheap prices compared to a grocery store.

Yes please, I would like this as my view every day

Snacks for the car ride...Apple Cider Donuts fresh from the farm

Cold Sesame Noodles with Summer Vegetables

While my work neighborhood has some great restaurants, who really has time to have a long drawn out sit down lunch? Not I! So I'm always looking for an easy lunch to take with me so I don't have to think about what to eat to fuel me through the day. Since its still somewhat warm out, I settled on this recipe because it looked super easy and was something different and light. Verdict? So easy to make, so colorful and full of texture. I love Sriracha so I added more than the recipe called for and didn't add the cilantro because I forgot to purchase it. Next time, I will add chicken or tofu to give it more of a protein punch. This dish is perfect for a light lunch or dinner, especially during the warm months.

Zucchini, Tomato, and Ricotta Tart

In the 12 months since my last blog entry, I have been on 30 (yes THIRTY) trips, part work/part fun. Its been a whirlwind of crazy, yet semi-controlled, chaos these last 365+ days. As a result, I've spent a lot of time outside of my kitchen. But after a few requests, I've decided its time to resume posting. (Just not as frequently as I had before so that it remains fun and less like another job.)

So before I get into a new recipe, be sure to check out my new tab: Fitness! My caffeine, my pick me up, my personal therapy all comes in the form of exercise. Highlights from this summer: placing 2nd place in a smaller race and running my first half marathon! I've also joined an awesome bootcamp that I've guest blogged about - so be sure to check it out this new tab to keep up with the fitness fun. It should get interesting as I like to try new things!

And now on to why I am brining the blog back! I have dozens and dozens of recipes clipped in folders, tagged in cookbooks/magazines and even a recipe tag in my email. I love recipes and I love testing them out. So after a friend and I stumbled upon a "pick your own" farm a few weeks back, I had alot of tomatoes and zucchini to experiment with. Off to the recipe reserves I went and selected a fancy looking zucchini, tomato and ricotta tart. I'd always wanted to make it but feared promising it for a weekend brunch in the event it was an epic fail! I was pleasantly surprised that this recipe was simpler than I thought (heck, I made it after I had completed a 7.5 mile run one Sunday morning so you know it had to be non-intense!). The end result was delicious....I was glad I was the taste tester for this one as I wanted it all for myself!

Roasted Butternut Squash

I honestly triple love butternut squash because its so darn delicious and easy to make! Plus it's healthy - i'm talking healthy carboydrates, vitamins A and C and potassium! Aside from that, it can go in a variety of dishes - it can be roasted, toasted, pureed into soup or mashed into casseroles, muffins and breads.

Seeing that I am on my two week work trip and not cooking, here is one of my go to basic recipes for a quick, healthy and delicious side dish, meal or snack - roasted butternut squash! Since my discovery of the peeled and cut butternut squash at Trader Joe's this has become more of an essential item in my weekly grocery list.

Roasted Corn and Edamame Salad

I'm a big fan of packing lunch during the work week. For me, its easy. its quick. its healthy. its cheaper. and most importantly I can control what goes in it. So I am always looking for something new and different to take for lunch. So in one of my random "recipe challenges" (aka come up with something new based on what you already have in the house), I came up with this roasted corn and edamame salad. Final verdict...absolutely delicious!

Zucchini Cakes

I always overbuy zucchini because its probably my most favorite vegetable so I'm constantly looking for recipes on what to do with the excess. Last time I made Roasted Zucchini Fries, but this time I wanted to try something different, zucchini cakes. Seeing as cakes in all forms are awesome (dessert, crab cakes, corn cakes, etc), I figured this was a no brainer with a little creative thought on how to make it happen. And sure enough, this did not disappoint! So if you're looking for a way to use up that excess zucchini, these cakes are a great as a side dish, an appetizer or as a main dish on top of a delicious salad. Enjoy!

Wheat Berry Salad & Contest Giveaway!

 Last weekend I was tasked with bringing side dishes for my friend’s bbq (my other side dish: crunchy asian slaw) and wanting to continue my trend of trying something new, I figured this was the perfect chance to test out Bob’s Red Mill Hard Red Wheat Berries that they so graciously sent to me! Last month, I met some reps from Bob’s Red Mill at the BlogHer ’11 Food Conference, which I attended for work, but had the added benefit of me being able to pick up some ideas, tips, etc. for this blog. Score me! Having mentioned that I’ve never cooked with wheat berries, I was happily surprised when I received a package a few weeks later with two large bags of Bob’s Red Mill Hard Red Wheat Berries! In case you don’t know wheat berries are kernels of wheat with a protein content of 15% or better. These berries can be cooked as a cereal, added to salad for extra crunch and protein or milled into flour.

So after flipping through my cookbooks, I settled on a wheat berry salad recipe from the Barefoot Contessa. The end result? a delicious, different and very popular side dish! The best part about this salad is that you can customize it to your tastes or what you have in your pantry or fridge. Next time, I’ll making it with some combination of dried cranberries, edamame, celery and/or some feta!

So for my first contest (and to see if I can get people to comment more!), I’m giving away a 2lb bag of Bob’s Red Mill Hard Red Wheat Berries!  In the comments tell me your favorite wheat berry recipe or what you would put in this recipe if you were making it or your favorite Bob’s Red Mill product. I will find a random number generator app to figure out how to pick a winner! Then if you’re the lucky winner all you have to do is wait for the mail to arrive with your wheat berries! Contest ends on Monday, June 27th!

Crunchy Asian Slaw

For my friend, and fellow blogger, KG's BBQ this weekend, I was tasked with making a side. Not wanting to make potato salad, macaroni salad or pasta salad, I stood in the produce section and stared....for 10 minutes until I settled on making some type of slaw. Remembering this crunchy asian slaw my aunt made years before, I set out to re-create it. The end result a very easy to make, refreshing and asian-fusion cole slaw! The addition of uncooked ramen noodles and sliced almonds completes this bright and colorful side dish.

Mexican Grilled Corn Crostini

After much inter-team debate (read: arguments!) on what to make as our appetizer for the 1st annual Big Don Tidwell's cook-off, we gathered around the kitchen the table and flipped through this month's Bon Appetit for some final inspiration. The magazine had a whole section on themed crostini and seeing as one of my favorite things is grilled corn, we decided to make the grilled corn, crema mexicana and cilantro crostini. So glad we did because it was really delicious, different and won us the award for the best appetizer during the cook-off! (A funny aside, post party, both teams talked and we were somewhat surprised the filet sliders that the other team made didn't win as both my sister and I voted for those because they were just that good!) Either way, this Mexican grilled corn crostini is a winner, whether you are in a competition or not!

Kale Chips

According to my research on the Net, kale is one of the healthiest vegetables around. I had no idea what kale was before, I just ate it because I liked it! So a little background, kale is a form of wild cabbage in the same family as spring greens and collard greens. Kale is a nutritional powerhouse: its packed with vitamins A and C and is a great source of beta-carotene. So last week in the interest of eating more kale, I picked up a bag of chopped kale at Trader Joe's. Of course I didn't think to use it until the night before I went out of town for several days and since I didn't want to waste it, I decided to make baked kale chips as a low calorie and nutritious side dish. Much like potato chips, I couldn't eat just one. But since it was vitamin packed and healthy, I didn't care!

Chickpea Salad

This month's supper club theme was Taste of Spring, meaning food that should be eaten when the sun comes out, flowers are blooming and birds start to sing! What this meant to me was something light, refreshing and easy. Not having much time to whip something up, I decided on this chickpea salad with lemon, parmesan and fresh herbs from the April 2011 issue of Bon Appetit magazine. I wasn't sure how this salad would turn out, but after the 10 minutes it took to prepare and taste, it was clear this would be a hit for my supper club gals! If you love chickpeas, you will love this salad!

Crunchy Coconut Corn Fritters

The first time I made corn fritters it was for a party ages ago. Fast forward to recently when I had some coconut in my house (something I never have) and I started googling ways to incorporate it into recipes. Once I saw it, I couldn't resist this recipe for crunchy coconut corn fritters. Something bite size, crunchy, surprisingly light and with a hint of sweetness and a dash of spice! A great snack to serve guests or to keep in your fridge for munching over a long weekend!

White Pizza with Broccoli and Potato

Last month's supper club theme was Green, Potatoes & Guinness in honor of St. Patrick's Day. However by the time the day rolled around I had no clue what to make...none what so ever. So I do what every pretend famous chef does, I turned to my trusty yet to make recipe folder and stumbled upon a recipe for broccoli rabe, potato and rosemary pizza. Decision made! 2 of the 3 ingredients and I was convinced this was a healthy, and fancy, pizza. Of course by the time I went to the store I didn't have the ingredients written down so I went off of memory and ended up leaving the store with a bag of frozen broccoli, a few yukon gold potatoes, shredded mozzarella cheese and fresh pizza dough. While I had hopes of some fancy pizza, I ended up with a very budget, but still impressive and tasty, alternative.