Doesn’t that look amazing? Oh it is. I made this early last week and enjoyed the most filling and delicious breakfasts ever for the entire week. I also used this hash to top plain lettuce and turn it into an amazing salad and to accompany a mid week steak craving as an absolutely killer side. Next I want to whip this up again and pair it with a delicate baked fish and some sort of creamy sauce – darn that sounds good!

Read on for the recipe and nutrition facts!

• 4 slices prosciutto, roughly chopped
• 2 cups potatoes cut into 1/4 inch cubes, or you can use the cube style hash browns for a short cut
• 1 small vidalia onion, chopped
• 1 cup frozen shelled edamame
• 1 cup frozen sweet corn
• 1 head of confit garlic
• salt and pepper to taste

Make sure everything that was frozen is thawed.

Heat a large frying pan over medium heat, add prosciutto and cook until it just begins to brown, stirring often.

Add potatoes, continue stirring and cooking until the potatoes just begin to brown (sensing a pattern here?).

Add remaining ingredients cook until browned.

Serve with whatever you fancy, but with a fried egg for breakfast is a strong choice in my book!

Makes 4 – 1 cup servings:

It is a cold hard fact that Bolognese is the most deliciously complex and satisfyingly savory sauce in the world. That being said- it normally takes 4-6 hours to make, and while completely worth it, I just don’t have that kind of time! Good thing that after some finicking around with this recipe- I found a way to make a ‘short cut’ sauce that combines the best of the flavor building steps of bolognese with a time saving store-bought add on that cuts out 4 hours at the end.

What’s more – it’s vegan! (If you please)

The results will blow your mind- comment if you can tell a difference, but no one has been able to thus far! I literally eat this stuff straight out of the jar!

Read on for the recipe and nutrition facts, and enjoy!

• 1/4 cup garlic olive oil- directions below
• 1 large vidalia onion, diced
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 4 stalks celery- diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• sea salt
• 4 cups chopped bella mushrooms (can sub for ground filet if you would like)
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon thyme
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 3 cups hearty red wine
• 1 jar marinara sauce
• Water

For garlic olive oil: Heat your oven to 350. Peel a head of garlic and place the cloves in a small baking dish (ramekin if you have one) with 1/4 cup of olive oil. Bake for 20 minutes- until the cloves are a dark golden brown. Remove from oven and cool. Remove cloves- reserve for spreading on bread or for any other use you can come up with – they are heaven!

Heat a large pan (a dutch oven if you have one) over low heat, add garlic olive oil. Add the onion through garlic and season generously with salt (2 tsp, or more if you like salty sauce!). Cook until brown- about 20 minutes. This will smell AMAZING!

Add the mushrooms, bay leaf, thyme, oregano, and peppers, and cook until brown- another 10 minutes.

Add the wine. Cook until all the wine has cooked off- the sauce should look wet but not have visible liquid. This will take a while!

Get rid of the bay leaves, add marinara and bring to a simmer for 10 minutes. Add water if necessary to bring to the consistency you desire. Enjoy!

Makes 12 – 1/2 cup servings (vegan style)

Have I got a treat for you! This is quite possible the most scrumdidlyumptious bread I have ever had the momentary lapse of judgement to discover. As seen in my post about conversation bread, I like to wing it. So I might have freaked out a bit 15 minutes after adding this random conglomeration of ingredients to my bread machine (this was the point when I actually thought about what I had added)… except it already smelled like heaven

• 2 Tbsp pecans, chopped
• 2 Cups whole wheat flour
• 3/4 Cups oat flour
• 1/4 Cups cornmeal
• 1 tbsp baking soda
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 overripe bananas pureed
• 1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1/2 Cup soy milk 

I set it to quick-bread and let it do its thang. Magic happened and created the most yummy peanut butter companion ever.

Falafel is wonderful. There are a million things you can do with it and for some reason I don’t think it’s physically possible for me to ever get tired of it. I make these Sunday and enjoy an entire week of awesome.

Serve these little babies with salad, hummus, as a sandwich with cucumber, hummus, and tomato, or as a falafel burger!

Scroll or click on for the recipes and stats.

• 1 15 oz can chickpeas, 1/2 of the water reserved
• 1 tbs tahini
• 1/2 Cup chopped parsley
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/2 large red onion- diced
• juice of one lemon
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tbsp finely ground cornmeal

Blend chickpeas, their ‘water,’ and tahini until almost smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients.

Form into 9 golf ball sized balls. Heat a large fry pan over medium heat, add one tablespoon olive oil and swirl to distribute evenly.

For normal falafel: Cook as a ball 5 minutes, then flip over so that the brown side is facing upward, press down only slightly and cook another 5 minutes.

For falafel burgers: As you place the balls into the pan- press them down slightly with your fingers before you let them sit to brown on the first side. After 5 minutes flip and press down further- so that they are the size of a burger bun. Let cook 5 more minutes.

To assemble burger smear one side of a toasted bun with goddess dressing, stack with lettuce, tomato, more onion if you please (caramelized onions would be killer here), and anything else you can think of- we did bacon!

Nutrition info is based on making 9 falafels, nutrition is per falafel:

I have finally found a tie for my favorite dressing in the world, and the best part is that it has gone absolutely perfectly with every one of my latest food obsessions: these tomatoes, these roasted chickpeas, and these falafel!

While the salad may be mine- this dressing was brought to me courtesy of Caroline at The Broccoli Hut. I always love her stuff, but this is the first recipe I may actually memorize- from any blog, almost including my own! I love how easy it is and have started whipping up larger batches in my baby-sized-blender to add to everything from sandwiches to steak.

Read on for the salad recipe, link to the dressing recipe, and nutrition facts:

Oven Roasted Salad

• 1 recipe oven roasted tomatoes
• One recipe cayenne roasted chickpeas
• 4 slices whole wheat bread – or other bread, cubed
• Romaine lettuce
• Kale
• Breast meat from lemon rosemary roast chicken- or a store bought rotisserie chicken
• 1/4 cup Goddess dressing

Toast bread (no need to add oil etc) at 400 for 15 minutes- until crisp.

Combine all ingredients in a large salad bowl, toss to combine. Yep- that’s a salad!

Makes 6 large servings (meal sized)

Every time I head to TJ’s or Whole Foods now I grab a can (or 3) of garbanzo beans so that I can make a huge batch of these and toss them in nearly everything. I have loved these on salads, in place of croutons as a garnish on a creamy soup, or just as a tasty snack all by themselves. And since milage has gotten up there with short runs at 7 or 8 miles and this week’s long run hitting 14… fiber is always a good thing because I am constantly starving!

I love making mine a bit spicy- as you will see in the recipe- but you could really do anything you want with these as far as flavorings go. I have been wanting to try them with a sweet twist by adding cinnamon sugar or maple syrup – so if you are feeling adventurous and try it, let me know how it goes!

Read on for the recipe and nutrition facts!

• 1 can chickpeas, drained, rinsed and dried
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp cumin

Combine all ingredients in a 9×9 inch baking pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour, tossing every 15 minutes.

See- so easy! Enjoy!

Makes 4, 1/4 cup servings:

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

To celebrate we made these super easy and yummy oven toasted tortilla chips- made from a super easy recipe for spicy homemade chili soft flour tortillas- and noshed on them with salsa while we put together our actual meal

The soft tortillas will become a fast and easy new favorite in your abode. They are guaranteed to amp up any dish you use them for, all week long. (Like the killer taco bar that we put together for a little festive lunch today.)

Read on for the recipe and nutrition facts:

• 2 cups unbleached whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons bacon fat, or vegetable shortening
• 1 cup hot water (tea temperature)
• cornmeal for rolling out

Use your fingers (or a fork if you are feeling fancy) to mix together everything but the water (you should have a crumb-like consistency like seen above). When evenly mixed, start slowly mixing in the water until evenly mixed again.

Divide into 15 sections, sprinkle a flat surface with cornmeal, roll each into a flat round tortilla with a rolling pin. ‘Bake’ in a large frying pan (no oil needed) over medium heat, on each side for 1 min.  The longer you cook them the crunchier they get.

You can stop here and you have soft tortillas: I served with all of the good stuff in the pic above, including pulled chicken. The pulled chicken takes zero effort: I just add 4 chicken breasts and one packet of taco seasoning to a small crock pot and let it go 2 hours until it pulls apart. Delicious! 

Orrrr… you can make chips.

Cut them into 6-8 pieces and bake until crisp (about 10 min) in a 400 degree oven.

Per tortilla:

Nothing says ‘it’s spring’ like a nice cool cocktail and fresh fruit- and nothing makes either of these more delicious than a perfectly sweet simple syrup.

While you can add whatever you want to a syrup to make it, well, less simple, I nearly always go for a mix of ginger, mint, and something else I have around the kitchen. The ginger is the perfect zest, the mint cools off whatever you are adding this to- necessary as the temperatures rise, and then you can accent with whatever you are feeling that day. We were feeling like amping up the zest- so we added orange.

Read on for the basic recipe, the drink recipe for the killer cocktail above, and the nutrition facts.

Basic simple syrup: boil 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water until completely combined. Let cool.

To add flavors, simply toss in whatever you would like to flavor the simple syrup with- such as mint leaves, slices of fresh ginger, orange peel… etc.

Campari Cooler:

• 1 oz campari
• 4 oz riesling
• 1-1/2 oz ginger, mint, and orange simple syrup
• 6 large ice cubes

Shake it all in a cocktail mixer. Pour into two wine glasses- with ice if you desire. Enjoy!

For 1 oz simple syrup:

For one drink (recipe above makes 2):

Ready for the easiest and most delicious pasta you will ever make? These tomatoes, olive oil, rosemary, and capers. Bam. Dinner or lunch that will knock your socks off!

Little upgrades like roasting the tomatoes instead of sautéing them, and frying the capers and the rosemary to bring out the salty and herby flavors take this dish to a whole other level! Add in any herbs you like, but I LOVE rosemary.

Read on for the recipe and nutrition facts:

• A full 2 pint recipe of These Tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons capers
• 3 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves removed from stems
• 1 box (8 servings) brown rice pasta
• salt and pepper to taste

Cook your pasta in salted water. Meanwhile sauté rosemary and capers in olive oil until they just begin to brown. Add pasta and tomatoes, toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Makes 8 Servings:

What to do when you have leftover wine? Well, first of all evaluate why you have leftover wine… but also- make jam! This stuff goes great on pancakes the morning after a big night out

The best part is that you can sub in whatever wine you have leftover- from a sweet champagne or moscato to a deeper red.

Read on for the recipe and nutrition facts:

• 3 cups mixed berries – I use frozen
• 2 cups wine or champagne
• sugar to sweeten to taste- add after the berries have broken down, you will need to use less if the wine is sweeter

Combine wine and berries in a large saucepan, simmer uncovered until it reduces to a jam consistency- about 30 minutes. You’ll know it’s right when the jam becomes more lump than sauce- see picture of what a spoonful should look like, in the pictures above.

Add sugar to taste, stir until completely combined.

Enjoy!

Makes 24 – 1 tablespoon servings (based on adding 1/4 cup sugar):