Mustard Roasted Salmon

This is another one of those need to cook in less than 30 meals.  It's quick, easy, painless and amazing.  I recently discovered the Trader Joe's rice in the frozen section!  Nice to have for quick meals.  Pair it with your favorite veggie and dinner is served.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mustard-roasted-salmon-recipe/index.html

Homemade Pizza

We have a pizza problem in our house.  We all LOVE pizza but Sophia and I can't do dairy.  I've tried every frozen pizza and I never get the satisfaction I am looking for.  A co-worker mentioned using Trader Joe's dough so I gave it a try this week.  I used Rao's pizza sauce (because I'm addicted to their pasta sauce) and soy cheese.  Topped it with my favorite, pepperoni and pineapple.  It's pretty decent.  Next time I'll brush the crust with some oil olive before baking since I felt it was a little dry and will help it get a bit more golden.  But we will definitely be doing this again!!

If anyone can recommend a great dairy-free cheese that tastes great on pizza, let me know!

http://www.traderjoes.com/fearless-flyer/article.asp?article_id=702

http://www.raos.com/pizza-sauce-case.aspx#.UaqPKq78eYA

White House Garden Herb-Roasted Chicken with Braised Greens

This recipe is a total winner in my books.  The flavors are AMAZING.  The chicken marinates over night so make sure to plan ahead if you want to make this meal.  To speed up the cooking process, prep as much as you can the night before.  Tear all your kale and cut the bacon.  Then all you have to do is cut the onion and wash your kale and throw the chicken in the oven.  I always serve it with quinoa cooked in chicken broth.  

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/white-house-garden-herb-roasted-chicken-with-braised-greens-recipe/index.html

Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs

This is a meal I've been cooking for a couple of years now.  Stumbled on the recipe and it's been in heavy rotation ever since.  It's by no means a "fancy meal" but it tastes pretty damn good and it's really QUICK.

Since the sticky honey is hard to clean, I cheat and use a baking sheet with foil rather than the broiler pan. What's the point of a quick meal if clean takes FOREVER?!?  Another "cheat" is I use a boxed risotto but it's so easy and so good.  http://www.lundberg.com/products/risottos/Creamy_Parmesan_Risotto.aspx
Since summer is here, I found fresh zucchini at the farmers market, so baked it in the over with some salt, pepper and garlic powder.  From start to finish, this meal is on the table in under 30 minutes.

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/spicy-honey-brushed-chicken-thighs-10000001591042/

Memorial Day Weekend - We eat!

On Saturday, I didn't make it to the store until pretty late in the evening and knew I had to make something quick and easy.  Fish is always something I turn to on these kind of nights.  Halibut is in season and one of our family favorites.  A bit pricey but totally worth it!!  I had been sitting on this recipe since last fall and now I'm not sure what I was waiting for.

First time trying something new, I follow the recipe but next time I will be making some adjustments.  I will cut down on the chicken broth and add more coconut milk and up the amount of curry. Also, it's sitting on a bed of spinach.  Totally need to double the amount of spinach!!  I served it with bowls of basmati rice.  This was a totally winner despite all the changes I'm going to make on the next round.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/thai-style-halibut-with-coconut-curry-broth-recipe/index.html

Sunday night we were in the Memorial Day spirit and decided on pulled pork sandwiches.  I've done these before and they are AMAZING!  Great weekend meal.  Prep takes a good 45 minutes but then you're basically done.

I toasted the buns with butter and served it with baked beans and cole slaw (purchased from Gelson's).  Topped it with some KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce and gobbled them up.  Don't be intimidated by the recipe.  You throw everything into a blender, reduce, add stock and reduce some more.  It's really EASY and totally worth the work.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/slow-cooker-pork-tacos-recipe/index.html  (Yes it says for tacos but felt they were better as pulled pork sandwiches)

Monday - Memorial Day, I'm off duty.  Earl is cooking his amazing ribs.  I requested fall off the bone ones, so they've been baking in the over for a couple of hours now and then he'll throw them on the grill.  We'll have corn, beans, cole slaw (homemade and tastes just like KFC's), pasta salad (from Gelson's) and corn bread (Marie Calendar's mix).

This weeks menu:
Spicy-honey chicken with risotto and zucchini
Herbed chicken with quinoa and braised kale with bacon
Steak with roasted potatoes, onions, red peppers and carrots
Homemade pizza using Trader Joe's dough, Rao's pizza sauce and soy cheese.  Might top it with pepperoni and pineapple.

Welcome to Ms. Sicily Cooks!

I am a self proclaimed recipe junkie.  Love searching for new recipes and trying them out, making a few adjustments and adding them to my dinner rotation.

Each Friday/Saturday I plan out the next weeks meals and shop for just those items.  It keeps you on plan and prevents you from wasting any food.  I'm big on shopping fresh, local and organic.  Totally recommend finding a farmers market near you for fresh produce.  It makes a HUGE difference.  Sophia is 2 and LOVES her vegetables and I give all the credit to fresh food, not my cooking.  Yes, it might cost a little bit more but the taste and health benefits are worth every penny.

So here is a look into what Ms. Sicily Cooks!  Enjoy!

19 months, going on 13

This morning I got a jarring request from my 19 month old. It was one of those asks I thought I had years before hearing. We arrived at school this morning and one of Sophia's classmates, dare I say best-friend, came over to greet her.

"Fia, HI Fia, HI Fia", her best-friend yells as she comes over to hug Sophia. Sophia says her hellos and then notices the shiny new earrings on her friend.  As Sophia reaches for her ears, I tell her,"Gentle...." in fear she would pull on them.  I also comment on how pretty the earrings are and her friend replies, "Beautiful."  I agree that they are very beautiful.  The next thing that happened blew my mind.

Sophia looks at me holding her ears and says "Fia's ears" and then points to her friend and says "Fia, ears." Her teachers and I stood there looking at each other.  I asked Sophia "You want to get your ears pierced like your friend?" "Yes, Fia's ears!" "Well we have to go to a store to do that...." and before I could finish, Sophia was headed for the door.  "Sophia, we can't go now but we'll talk about it tonight with Daddy." She immediately begins to pout, walks over to the mini sofa, throws herself down on it and begins to cry.  I sit down next to her and tell her how we can talk about it tonight and maybe go this weekend and she gets up and goes to her friend.  Her friend looks at me and points to her ears and says "Out, out....Fia" like she wanted me to take them out of her ears and give them to Sophia.

I'm still in shock that my 19 month old basically asked me to go get her ears pierced!  And how adorable is it that her friend wanted to let her wear them?  These girls are too much!!